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By  Hon.  JOIIX  II  * EX 


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EARLY  CHICAGO: 

A    LECTURE, 

DELIVERED    BEFORE 

THE    SUNDAY    LECTURE    SOCIETY, 

AT  McCORMICK  HALL, 

ON   SUNDAY  AFTERNOON,   APRIL  n,  1875, 
"  WITH  SUPPLEMENTAL  NOTES." 


BY 

HON.  JOHN  WENTWORTH, 

LATE  EDITOR,  PUBLISHER  AND  PROPRIETOR  OF  THE  "CHICAC 
DEMOCRAT,"  THE  FIRST  CORPORATION  NEWSPAPER : 

MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS  FOR  THE  CHICAGO 
DISTRICT  FOR  TWELVE  YEARS ;  TWO  TERMS  MAYOJ 
AND  A  SETTLER  OF  1836. 


DEACCESSIONED  BY 
HICAGO  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 
PRINTED  COLLECTIONS 


The  likeness  of  Hon.  John  Wentworth,  which  we  present 
<in  this  Number,  was  engraved  from  the  portrait  painted  by 
George  P.  A.  Healey,  Esq.,  in  1857,  for  the  City  Hall. 
That  for  No.  Seven  of  our  Series,  entitled  "Early  Chicago" 
was  engraved  from  a  photograph,  by  Fassett,  representing 
him  as  leaving  his  country  residence,  at  Summit,  to  take 
the  cars  for  Chicago.  F. 


,.  -••      *        * 


LU4- 


EARLY   CHICAGO. 


Ax  the  first  organization  of  the  Sunday  Lecture  Society, 
it  was  resolved  to  have  three  lectures  upon  the  History  of 
Chicago,  with  a  view  of  exciting  among  our  people  a  spirit 
of  historical  research  which  would  result  in  recovering  lost 
documents,  and  placing  upon  record  the  experience  of  our 
early  settlers.  The  first  was  to  be  delivered  by  Col.  Gur- 
don  S.  Hubbard,  who  was  here  in  1818.  The  second,  by 
Hon.  William  B.  Ogden,  our  first  Mayor.  The  third,  by 
myself,  who  published  the  first  corporation  newspaper,  and 
was  its  first  Congressman.  But  Col.  Hubbard's  ill-health 
required  that  he  should  try  the  climate  of  Florida.  Mr. 
Ogden,  at  the  age  of  70,  concluded  he  would  get  married. 
Not  having  been  afflicted  like  either  of  these  gentlemen, 
the  Committee  desired  that  I  should  take  the  place  of  the 
other  two,  and,  in  a  single  lecture,  bring  the  history  of 
Chicago,  from  its  first  inhabitant,  down  to  the  day  when 
my  original  lecture"'  was  to  have  commenced,  leaving  that 
for  the  next  winter's  course;  thus  writing  a  history  of 
Chicago  with  myself  and  my  times  left  out.  No  "present  nor 
future  historian  can  do  this,  unless  he  does  as  I  shall  do  to- 
day, stop  shortly  there.  He  might  go  a  little  period  beyond 
my  arrival,  but  the  first  steam  fire  enginet  would  bring 
him  up.  As  it  is,  I  shall  have  too  many  facts  for  any  dis- 
play of  fancy;  too  much  prose  for  poetry;  too  many  nouns 
for  adjectives;  and,  in  many  instances,  the  main  route  will 

*  The  Lecture  referred  to  was  delivered  at  McCormick's  Hall,  May 
7,  1876,  and  has  already  been  published  in  pamphlet  form;  and  it 
should  be  read  in  connection  with  this. 

t  Mayor  Wentworth,  during  his  first  term,  in  1857,  introduced  the 
first  steam  fire  engine  into  the  City.  It  was  called  "Long  John." 
During  his  second  term,  1861,  he  introduced  two  more,  and  called 
them  "Liberty"  and  "Economy,"  in  honor  of  a  favorite  watchword 
of  his. 


4  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

be  so  circuitous  that  I  shall  have  to  "cut  across  the 
prairie's"  to  reach  my  destination  in  season.  I  shall  under- 
take to  do,  this  afternoon,  what  I  never  undertook  before : 
to  withdraw  my  eyes  from  the  audience,  and  confine  them 
to  my  manuscript.  Already  do  I  fear  this  embarrassment 
so  greatly  that  I  am  half  inclined  to  do  as  they  do  with 
long  bills,  in  the  Legislature,  read  my  lecture  by  its  title, 
and  then  step  to  the  front,  and  give  you  a  talk.  In  which 
event  you  will  regret  that  you  did  not  bring  your  lunch 
with  you.  [See  Supplement.] 

If  I  should  undertake  to  write  the  history  of  Chicago, 
I  should  close  my  first  chapter  with  the  massacre,  August 
15,  1812.  But  who  can  tell  me  where  I  should  begin  it? 
Justice  to  the  subject,  I  am  confident,  would  compel  me 
to  begin  so  far  back  that  not  to  allude  to  the  discovery  of 
the  continent,  or,  at  least,  to  that  of  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, would  subject  me  to  the  charge  of  treating  the 
memory  of  Christopher  Columbus  or  Fernando  De  Soto 
with  great  disrespect.  Henry  Brown,  of  this  city,  who 
wrote,  in  1844,  a  very  good  History  of  Illinois,  asked  a 
friend  what  he  thought  of  it.  His  reply  was,  "  I  see  you 
are  a  disbeliever  in  the  Scriptural  account  of  the  creation 
of  the  world."  "Why  so?"  asked  Judge  Brown.  "Be- 
cause," was  the  reply,  "  in  your  extremely  early  beginning, 
you  make  no  mention  of  Adam."  Yet,  had  he  lived  to 
have  written  a  second  volume,  his  seemingly  dry  statement 
of  the  result  of  his  explorations  into  the  unwritten  traditions 
of  the  past  would  elicit  from  every  student  of  history  the 
warmest  encomiums.  Supposing  George  Bancroft  had  died 
after  he  had  written  his  first  volume,  what  would  the  reader 
have  known  about  the  United  States?  But  Bancroft  still 
lives,  and  he  is  still  writing.  *  And  every  new  volume  he 
publishes  makes  the  first  one  the  more  highly  appreciated. 

You  cannot  write  history  backwards.  As  the  surveyors 
say,  "  You  must  begin  at  the  section  corner."  Those  best 
acquainted  with  Indian  antiquities,  give  to  Chicago  a  far- 
reaching  past.  As  there  were  Indians  before  the  discovery 
of  the  continent,  there  must  have  been  conspicuous  and 
central  points  for  councils,  and  Chicago  was  undoubtedly 
one  of  them. 

The  name,  or  its  spelling,  or  its  pronounciation,  may 
have  been  different.  But  the  Indians  were  not  troubled 
with  dictionaries  or  spelling-books.  There  were  no  spell- 


BY   HON.   JOHN   WENTWORTH.  5 

ing-schools  among  them.  No  book  agent  ever  annoyed 
their  Boards  of  Education.  John  Quincy  Adams,  whose 
seat  was  near  mine  in  Congress,  seeing  me  write  "  Chicago," 
said:  "That's  the  way  everybody  spells  it  now;  but,  under 
my  Administration,  no  two  Government  officers  writing 
from  there  ever  spelled  it  the  same  way."  He  repeated 
over  a  long  list  of  the  various  ways  in  which  it  was  formerly 
spelled.  Then  he  said:  "I  see  you  have  not  settled  upon 
your  pronunciation  yet,  as  members  of  your  own  delegation 
pronounce  it,  differently,"  as  we  then  did. 

Prior  to  the  time  of  the  commencement  of  the  Govern- 
ment works  upon  our  harbor,  the  River  turned  southward, 
near  the  Michigan  Central  depot,  and  ran  parallel  with 
Michigan  avenue,  full  half  a  mile,  leaving  quite  a  large 
tract  of  land  at  the  east  of  it;  and  the  entrance  to  the 
harbor  was  from  the  south.  This  point  of  land  was  cut 
through  in  1833,  and  the  River  straightened  to  its  present 
position.  After  this,  land  formed  very  rapidly  upon  the 
north  side,  and  washed  away  as  rapidly  upon  the  south  side 
of.  the  piers.  East  of  Michigan  avenue,  there  was  a  large 
tract  of  land,  upon  which  there  were  houses,  ornamental 
trees,  and  bushes,  and  the  grounds  were  highly  cultivated. 
Gradually  the  houses  were  undermined,  and  had  to  be  re- 
moved. Eventually,  the  avenue  itself  began  to  give  way; 
and,  in  a  storm,  the  spray  would  reach  the  doors  of  the 
houses  upon  the  other  side.  Whilst  this  tract  of  land  was 
being  washed  away,  skeletons,  isolated  bones,  stones,  and 
metals  of  curious  formation,  and  not  indigenous  to  this 
region,  probably  once  used  as  personal  ornaments  or  im- 
plements of  war,  were  found  upon  the  beach.  Sometimes, 
after  a  storm,  portions  of  a  skeleton  would  project  from  the 
banks,  and  wait  for  the  next  storm  to  entirely  remove  it. 
A  few  Indians  did  not  follow  their  tribes  when  they  left, 
and  more  would  occasionally  visit  here.  They  were  con- 
sulted as  to  when  the  ground  was  used  for  burial  purposes, 
and  when  such  ornaments  were  worn,  or  such  implements 
used  in  battle.  But  they  had  not  even  traditions  upon  the 
matter.  They  were  as  much  at  a  loss  as  to  their  origin  as 
our  citizens  were;  and  their  traditions  ran  far  back  of  the 
first  visit  of  the  early  French  explorers. 

The  first  written  account  of  the  North -West  bears  the 
date  of  1654,  when  two  French  fur-traders  left  Canada, 
returned  two  years  after,  and  gave  such  a  glowing  descrip- 


6  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

tion  of  this  region  as  excited  a  general  disposition  to  ex- 
plore it.  They  were  on  Lake  Superior,  and  went  among 
the  Sioux,  but  there  is  no  account  that  they  came  as  far 
south  as  Chicago.  Yet  there  may  have  been  white  men 
here  even  before  that  time.  It  is  claimed,  that  there  was 
a  missionary  station  at  Mackinaw,  about  1607.  The  place 
thereof  is  still  known  as  Point  Ignace.  It  was  there  that 
the  remains  of  Father  James  Marquette  were  taken,  about 
1720,  from  the  banks  of  Marquette  River,  over  in  Michi- 
gan; where  he  died  May  18,  1675,  within  a  few  days  of  200 
years  ago.  About  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  this 
station  at  Mackinaw,  there  was  one  established  at  Sand- 
wich, Canada,  opposite  Detroit.  It  was  not  characteristic 
of  the  early  French  explorers  to  go  so  far  and  then  stop. 
A  new  continent  had  been  discovered,  and  France  wanted 
all  of  it  that  she  could  get.  She  sent  her  vessels  up  the  St. 
Lawrence  River,  to  Anticosti  Island,  in  1634,  and  to  the 
site  of  Montreal  the  next  year,  before  the  most  of  the 
Puritans  and  Pilgrims,  who  settled  New  England,  were 
born.  The  voyagers  took  along  missionaries  with  theai; 
quite  as  much  because  they  were  the  best  educated  men 
of  the  times,  and  devotees  of  govermental  extension,  as  for 
religious  purposes.  But  the  French  made  all  their  explo- 
rations in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Gen.  Lewis  Cass,  how- 
ever, whilst  Minister  to  France,  in  gratification  of  an  anti- 
quarian taste,  examined  the  papers  relating  to  the  early 
French  settlement  in  America,  and  he  found  that  the  re- 
ports of  these  explorers  were  directed  to  His  Majesty,  the 
King,  instead  of  to  His  Holiness,  the  Pope.  But,  in  those 
days,  the  State  and  the  Church  were  one,  and  the  King,  as 
well  as  the  Pope,  could  do  no  wrong.  But  things  have 
changed  since.  It  is  the  Pope  only,  now,  that  can  do  no 
wrong.  There  is  certainly  one  wrong,  however,  that  the 
Pope  used  to  do,  that  he  cannot  do  now.  He  cannot  save 
a  King  when  the  people  want  his  head.  And  even  his 
political  power  yields  to  the  troops  of  Garibaldi,  in  Italy, 
and  the  mandates  of  Bismark,  in  Germany.  If  the  French 
were  at  Mackinaw  and  Sandwich,  about  1607,  they  must 
have  been  at  Chicago  within  a  few  years  afterward,  and 
have  established  a  missionary  or  military  station  here,  and 
have  passed  on  and  established  other  such  stations;  ap- 
pearing to  the  Indians  as  angels  of  mercy,  but  taking  pos- 
session of  the  country  for  France.  They  needed  no  sol- 


BY   HON.   JOHN   WENTWORTH.  7 

•diers,  as  the  early  French  missionaries  gained  such  an  in- 
fluence over  the  Indians  that,  as  subsequent  history  proves, 
every  Indian  was  a  French  soldier.  Quebec  was  founded 
in  1608,  and  Canada  made  a  royal  province  of  France  in 
1663. 

In  1700,  there  were  thirty-five  of  these  missionary  stations 
•or  quasi -military  posts  located  all  the  way  from  Frontenac 
(now  Kingston),  on  Lake  Ontario,  via  Detroit,  Mackinaw, 
Green  Bay,  Chicago,  Peoria,  St.  Louis,  etc.,  to  New  Orleans. 
About  the  same  time,  there  was  another  route  by  land  via 
Fort  Wayne  to  Chicago. 

Their  route  out  of  Chicago  was  down  the  north  fork  of 
the  South  Branch  through  Mud  Lake,  then  called  le  petit 
Jac,  to  the  Desplaines  River,  and  generally  in  the  same  little 
boats  with  which  they  had  passed  over  the  lakes  of  the  east. 
This  route,  partially  interrupted  by  the  construction  of  the 
Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal,  has  been  recently  restored  to 
the  condition  it  occupied  for  so  many  hundred  years,  and 
the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan  and  of  the  Desplaines  River 
again  mingle,  after  a  few  years  of  unnatural  separation. 

Napoleon  used  to  say,  that  he  always  found  the  Lord  on 
the  side  where  there  was  the  most  artillery.  But  here  were 
.a  few  traders,  hunters,  voyagers,  explorers,  and  missionaries 
who,  without  any  artillery,  extended  the  French  Empire 
•over  a  larger  tract  of  country  than  Napoleon  would  have 
acquired  with  all  his  artillery  if  he  had  conquered  Russia. 
Beginning  with  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia,  her  terri- 
tory north  of  us  extended  to  the  Pacific  Ocean;  and  west 
of  the  Mississippi  River,  it  embraced  all  territory  to  New 
Orleans.  When  we  bought  Louisiana,  in  1803,  of  Napoleon 
for  $15,000,000,  it  embraced  Minnesota  and  Iowa.  And 
why  was  it  that  Chicago  did  not  belong  to  France?  Where 
is  the  chapter  of  international  law  that  allowed  Gen.  George 
Rogers  Clark  (who  had  never  been  here)  to  annex  us  to 
old  Virginia,  when  the  French  had  had  a  post  here  nearly 
100  years  before?  History  describes  Father  James  Mar- 
quette,  who  came  to  Montreal  from  France,  as  the  first 
European  who  ever  set  his  foot  upon  Chicago  soil.  He 
was  at  the  Falls  of  St.  Mary  in  1668.  In  1669,  he  was  at 
LaPointe,  on  Lake  Superior.  In  1671,  he  was  at  Macinaw. 
But,  as  early  as  1660,  a  mission  was  established  on  the 
south  side  of  the  western  extremity  of  Lake  Superior,  at  a 
place  called  Che-go-ime-gon.  In  1671,  French  influence 


REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

had  become  so  extensive  that  they  assembled,  at  what  is 
now  Sault  de  Ste.  Marie,  a  council  of  Indians  representing 
all  the  various  tribes,  and  they  accomplished  the  object  of 
their  council  by  making  them  all  allies  of  France.  His 
transactions  were  published  in  Paris  in  1681;  and,  if  the 
object  of  his  mission  had  not  been  quite  as  much  govern- 
mental as  religious,  this  importance  would  not  have  been 
attached  to  them.  He  acted  upon  the  Napoleonic  idea 
that,  in  a  war  with  Great  Britain,  the  Lord  would  be  upon 
the  side  that  had  the  most  tomahawks  and  scalping-knives. 
Marquette  was  undoubtedly  the  first  white  man  who  tarried 
any  length  of  time  in  Chicago.  He  was  undoubtedly  our 
first  clergyman.  The  church,  however,  in  which  he  preached 
was  spared  the  necessity  of  extinguishment  in  the  Chicago 
fire.  Without  mentioning  Chicago,  however,  history  tells 
us  that  Father  Claude  Allouez  was  at  LaPointe,  on  Lake 
Superior,  as  early  as  1665,  and  that  in  1668,  he  had  a 
council  upon  an  island  in  Lake  Superior,  at  which  3000 
Pottawatomies  were  present,  and  these,  be  it  remembered, 
were  our  Chicago  Indians.  He  organized  a  mission  at 
Green  Bay,  in  1669;  where,  it  is  claimed,  that  Sieur  Jean 
Nicollet  was,  about  1639.  Unless  he  had  previously  been 
among  their  tribe,  or  had  French  agents  there,  how  were 
they  to  understand  his  French  or  he  their  Pottawatomie 
language?  In  1673,  Father  Joliet  joined  Marquette,  and 
went  upon  an  exploring  tour  to  the  Mississippi.  Joliet 
went  back  to  Quebec,  to  announce  the  result  of  his  explo- 
rations. On  his  way,  at  Frontenac  (now  Kingston),  he  told 
his  story  to  Robert  C.  LaSalle,  who  saw,  to  use  a  modern 
expression,  "  millions  in  it,"  and  wanted  to  "  put  his  money 
where  it  would  do  the  most  good."  He  hastened  to  France 
and  secured  the  good-will  of  Louis  XIV.,  by  proposing  a 
union  of  the  Canadas  with  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  a 
line  of  military  posts  from  the  lakes  to  the  Mississippi;  and 
having  cajoled  the  King  into  giving  him  a  monopoly  of  the 
fur  trade  in  the  west,  the  real  object  of  his  mission,  he 
hurried  back.  But  he  first  secured  the  services  of  an  ex- 
perienced Italian  navigator  named  Henry  de  Tonti,  with 
whom  he  arrived  at  Quebec,  in  1678.  He  was  soon  after 
joined  by  Father  Louis  Hennepin.  He  built  the  first  sail 
vessel  that  ever  was  upon  the  lakes,  and  named  it  the 
Griffin.  He  went  immediately  into  commerce,  with  Henne- 
pin as  chaplain  and  Tonti  as  chief  superintendent.  Tonti 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  9 

passed  the  most  of  the  winter  of  1682  at  Starved  Rock, 
near  what  is  now  Utica,  LaSalle  Co.,  in  Illinois,  waiting  for 
LaSalle  and  Hennepin  to  join  him.  During  that  year — 1682 
— the  French  explored  the  Mississippi  to  the  sea.  Tonti 
made  reports  to  the  Governor -General  of  Canada,  who 
transmitted  copies  to  Paris.  Thus,  whilst  Marquette  was 
our  first  clergyman,  LaSalle  was  our  first  member  of  the 
Board  of  Trade, — -«the  first  of  that  large  number  of  men 
who  make  such*  slow  progress  toward  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  that  they  let  the  camel  beat  them  in  getting 
through  the  eye  of  a  needle.  Hence  it  is  very  proper  that 
the  street  upon  which  our  Board  of  Trade  stands  should 
be  named  for  him.  And  how  much  of  historical  associa- 
tion is  there  connected  with  the  location  of  our  Board  of 
Trade  Block,  fronting  west  upon  a  street  named  in  honor 
of  the  man  first  engaged  in  western  commerce,  north  upon 
of  a  street  named  in  honor  of  the  father  of  our  country, 
east  upon  a  street  named  for  Gen.  George  Rogers  Clark, 
who  conquered  this  region  from  the  British  and  the  Indians, 
and  south  upon  one  named  for  the  father  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  his  country.  What  four  better  emblems  for  a  suc- 
cessful Board  of  Trade  man?  The  enterprise  of  LaSalle, 
the  moderation  of  Washington,  the  endurance  of  Clark, 
and  the  judgment  of  Madison!  From  this  period  to  1795, 
when  General  Anthony  Wayne  made  the  first  land  trade  in 
Chicago,  it  passes  almost  out  of  history;  and,  owing  to  the 
tedium  of  this  portion  of  my  lecture,  I  suppose  you,  anxi- 
ous for  events  nearer  your  time,  are  glad  of  it. 

Yet  I  must  say  that  never  was  so  much  territory  ac- 
quired in  so  short  a  time,  and  at  so  little  expense,  as  the 
French  acquired  in  America.  But  where  is  that  French 
territory  now?  Napoleon  the  Great  sold  to  us  in  1803,  for 
$15,000,000,  what  Great  Britain  had  not  conquered  from 
France.  And  Napoleon  the  Little  abandoned  Mexico  with- 
out the  force  to  protect  Maxmilian,  the  Emperor,  that  he 
himself  sent  there,  from  assassination.  Indeed,  it  may  be 
asked,  in  view  of  recent  events,  if  France  has  any  power 
anywhere.  I  allude  not  so  much  to  the  humiliation  at- 
tendant upon  the  recent  German  invasion  as  to  the  still 
greater  one  of  allowing  its  communes  to  destroy  the  monu- 
ments to  its  glorious  dead ;  as  if  not  satisfied  with  the 
destitution  of  present  glory,  it  would  extinguish  every  me- 
mento of  the  glory  of  its  past.  It  was  characteristic  of  the 


IO  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

French,  whilst  acquiring  the  right  to  all  the  Indian  country 
they  could,  to  make  the  Indians  do  all  the  fighting  against 
other  people  who  took  land  only  for  immediate  wants.  For, 
whilst  this  same  Frontenac,  Governor -General  of  Canada, 
was  sending  out  his  peaceful  emissaries  in  the  West,  he  was 
sending  out  emissaries  of  an  entirely  different  character  in 
the  East.  Fields  were  desolated  and  buildings  conflagrated, 
and  there  was  scarce  a  hearthstone  in  New  England  that 
was  not  stained  with  the  blood  of  women  and  children. 
And  there  is  not  a  New  Englander  within  the  sound  of  my 
voice  who  cannot  repeat  some  wrongs  inflicted  upon  his 
ancestors,  by  Indians,  stimulated  by  Frontenac's  rewards 
for  captives  and  scalps.  And,  as  death  was  preferred  to 
•captivity,  the  scalps  were  the  most  numerous.  These  bar- 
barities could  not  be  justified  by  wars  between  France  and 
Great  Britain;  nor  by  any  desire  of  the  New  Englanders  to 
•extend  their  territory  beyond  immediate  wants.  For  the 
New  Englanders  came  here  with  no  particular  love  of  their 
mother  country,  and  the  French  could  easily  have  made 
friends  of  them.  They  fled  to  America  from- religious  intol- 
erance. Their  settlements  were  compact,  and  they  were 
making  no  efforts  to  extend  them.  The  French  were  hav- 
ing the  territorial  extensions  all  their  own  way.  The  Pil- 
grims and  Puritans,  busy  in  persecuting  Quakers,  hanging 
witches,  and  punishing  each  other  for  violations  of  the  Sab- 
bath, had  not  got  above  tide-water  when  the  French  were 
regaling  themselves  with  the  white-fish  and  trout  of  Lake 
Superior,  and  getting  themselves  rich  with  the  fur  traffic. 
But  the  French  were  determined  to  drive  the  English  lan- 
guage from  the  Continent,  and  had  sought  the  alliance  of 
the  "Indians  for  this  purpose.  They  knew  that  wherever 
the  British  went  they  went  to  stay.  They  knew  that  John 
Bull  had  a  foot  of  immense  size,  and  that  it  was  one  of  his 
•characteristics,  when  he  once  got  it  down,  never  to  take  it 
up ;  and  she  could  have  proved  by  any  Irishman  then,  as 
well  as  now,  such  was  the  case  when  he  once  got  his  foot 
upon  a  nation's  neck.  Britain  emancipates  her  blacks,  but 
her  whites  never.  Little  did  the  French  then  think  that 
the  very  colonies  that  they  were  using  the  Indians  to  per- 
.secute  were  to  be  the  only  power  that  ever  did  make  John 
Bull  take  his  foot  from  an  inch  of  territory  anywhere. 

But  you  ask.  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  Chicago,  our 
present  city,  and  why  I  do  not  talk  of  modern  times,  tak- 


BY   HON.   JOHN   WENTWORTH.  II 

ing  in  the  Great  Fire.*  A  Boston  editor  says  he  will  give 
$500  to  any  Chicago  man,  woman,  or  child  who  can  talk 
ten  minutes  without  mentioning  the  Great  Fire.  How  long 
have  I  been  talking?  To  these  impatient  ones  I  will  say, 
"  look  at  your  city  seal !"  There  you  see  an  Indian  with 
his  bow  and  quiver,  facing  an  approaching  vessel  under 
full  sail.  Above  them  both  is  a  cradle  containing  an  infant. 
I  was  present  at  the  first  consultation  about  the  city  seal, 
and  the  idea  was  that  when  barbarism  gave  way  to  civiliza- 
tion, when  the  savages  retreated  before  commerce,  the  infant 
in  the  cradle  was  to  wake  up.  I  shall  wake  him  up  in  due 
time — wake  him  amidst  massacres,  floods,  and  conflagra- 
tions— wake  him  amidst  land  speculations,  Presidential 
conventions,  divorce  cases,  reformed  churches,  and  decapi- 
tated Bishops.  Meanwhile,  "Hush,  my  babe,  lie  still  and 
slumber!" 

I  want  to  inform  you  how  near  we  came  to  being  a 
French  city.  Indeed,  some  people  contend  that  the  Ger- 
mans mistook  it  for  one,  and  captured  it  about  the  time 
they  did  Paris.  We  were  essentially  French  until  the  erec- 
tion of  the  fort  in  1804  brought  the  English  language  here. 
As  late  as  1836,  when  I  came  here,  the  more  intelligent  of 
the  Pottawatomies  spoke  the  French  language  quite  as  well 
as  the  less  intelligent  inhabitants  of  Montreal  and  Quebec 
now  do.  Those  best  posted  in  Indian  antiquities  claim 
that  the  Pottawatomie,  or  Chicago  Indians,  were  but  an 
offshoot  from  the  numerous  and  powerful  tribe  of  Illinois 
Indians  for  whom  our  State  was  named,  also  a  French- 
speaking  people.  Thus,  after  several  years  of  progress,  we 
have  only  got  back  to  the  starting  point,  once  being  Illinois 
Indians,  and  now  Illinois  citizens ;  once  ruled  by  Indian 
sachems,  and  now  by  sachems  of  another  color,  and  some 
of  our  tax-payers  think  that  financially  our  present  sachems 
do  not  differ  materially  from  the  former  ones.  There  were 
many  full-blood  Indians  who  had  been  reared  in  French 
families;  and,  to  keep  them  from  returning  to  their  tribes, 
when  they  arrived  at  maturity,  they  were  told  that  they 
were  descendants  of  French  noble  families  who  had  been 
put  to  death  in  some  of  the  various  revolutions.  A  Rev. 
Eleazer  Williams,  a  prominent  Protestant  clergyman,  who 
had  been  a  long  while  in  the  Indian  missionary  service,  it 
will  be  remembered,  in  his  latter  days  came  to  the  conclu- 

*  The  fire  of  October  8th  and  gth,   1871. 


12  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY    CHICAGO. 

elusion  that  he  was  the  legitimate  son  of  the  guillotined 
Louis  XVI.,  and  he  made  so  good  a  showing  that  the 
Prince  de  Joinville,  son  of  King  Louis  Phillippe,  came  out 
to  see  him,  while  on  a  visit  to  the  United  States.  A  Rev. 
Mr.  Hanson  wrote  him  up  in  Putnams  Magazine,  as  the 
real  Louis  XVII.  But  king  stock  took  a  fall  about  those 
days,  and  he  did  not  go  to  Paris  to  urge  his  pretensions. 
It  was  a  standing  joke,  in  early  times,  when  one  could  not 
trace  his  parentage,  to  say,  "Oh,  call  him  a  descendant  of 
the  Royal  family  of  France !"  One  of  these  pretenders  to 
descent  from  the  nobility  of  France  had  been  told  that  the 
secret  of  his  origin  was  locked  up  in  the  breast  of  an  aged 
Indian  Chief  who  visited  this  city.  With  a  few  friends,  he 
sought  out  the  Chief,  and  asked  him  if  he  could  tell  him 
about  his  French  ancestry.  The  reply  was:  "Your  father 
Indian,  mother  squaw,  good  French!  My  squaw  got  nine 
papoose,  all  French."  Thus  ended  the  French  nobility  in 
Chicago. 

When  the  last  war  between  Great  Britain  and  France 
broke  out  on  the  American  Continent,  the  French  had  ex- 
tended their  power  up  the  Ohio  River,  as  far  as  Fort  Du 
Quesne,  now  Pittsburg,  and  were  contemplating  a  line  of 
militia-posts  from  that  place  to  Lake  Ontario.  Had  they 
succeeded  in  this,  and  held  their  power  on  this  continent, 
Chicago  would  certainly  have  been  a  French  city;  and,  in 
all  probability,  the  Paris  of  America ;  with  the  General 
Assembly  here,  composed  of  delegates  from  Halifax,  Que- 
bec, Montreal,  St.  Louis,  New  Orleans,  and  the  Pacific 
cities.  When  the  French  defeated  the  British  forces  at 
Fort  Du  Quesne,  and  left  their  Commander-in-Chief,  Gen. 
Braddock,  dead  upon  the  battle-field,  they  thought  they 
had  inflicted  a  fatal  blow  upon  British  power  in  America, 
but  they  inflicted  a  greater  one  when  they  left  alive  upon 
the  same  battle-field  the  juvenile  George  Washington,  des- 
tined so  soon  to  lead  to  glory  the  colonists,  spurred  to  bat- 
tle by  the  eloquence  of  John  Adams  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and 
of  Patrick  Henry  in  the  House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia. 

After  the  treaty  of  peace  between  Great  Britain  and 
France,  in  1763,  by  which  the  Canadas  were  ceded  to 
Great  Britain,  our  relations  to  the  two  countries  were  en- 
tirely reversed.  Whatever  prejudices  existed  against  the 
French,  for  their  course  in  the  past,  were  entirely  obliter- 
ated when  Gen.  Lafayette  came  to  our  relief,  during  our 


BY    HON.   JOHN   WENTWORTH.  13 

revolutionary  struggle.  From  that  hour  to  this,  there  has 
never  been  an  unkind  feeling  between  the  two  nations,  save 
from  what  Napoleon  the  Little  wanted  to  do  (but  had  not 
the  courage  to  do  it)  during  the  recent  war  of  the  slave 
power  against  our  Union.  And,  although  the  French  used 
every  effort  to  reconcile  the  Indians  to  the  Americans,  they 
continued  our  inveterate  enemies,  and  would  have  massa- 
cred Gen.  Lafayette  with  the  same  ferocity  as  Gen.  Wash- 
ington. And,  notwithstanding  the  halls  of  Parliament  once 
echoed  with  the  indignation  of  British  statesmen,  and  re- 
peated protests  were  made  to  the  French  Government 
against  Indian  barbarities,  the  British  saw  things  in  a  differ- 
ent light,  and  stimulated  the  Indians  to  even  more  hellish 
cruelties  than  the  French.  Even  after  the  American  Inde- 
pendence was  secured,  the  Indians  did  not  cease  their 
depredations.  Like  the  Irishman,  in  the  fight,  they  were 
for  hitting  a  head  wherever  they  could  find  one.  And  they 
kept  Gen.  Anthony  Wayne  very  busy  until  he  drove  them 
to  a  treaty  at  Greenville,  Ohio,  in  1795.  Now,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  I  begin  to  get  there.  Now,  look  in  the  cradle  ! 
The  baby  begins  to  nestle !  But  don't  take  him  out !  For 
Great  Britain  is  to  fire  the  Indian  demons  once  more.  An 
awful  massacre  is  in  the  distance.  By  that  treaty,  the 
Indians  ceded  to  the  United  States:  "One  piece  of  land, 
six  miles  square,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chicajo  River,  empty- 
ing into  the  southwest  end  of  Lake  Michigan,  where  a  fort 
formerly  stood."  This  was  an  old  French  fort,  probably 
built  over  100  years  before,  by  the  earliest  French  explor- 
ers. This  was  the  first  transaction,  on  record,  in  Chicago 
real  estate.  But  Gen.  Wayne  spelled  Chicago  with  a  "j." 
The  baby's  name  in  1795,  was  "jo."  He  had  not  got  the 
"go"  then.  It  was  Chica — jo. 

I  have  already  told  you  how  Chicago  escaped  from  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Indians,  of  the  French,  and  the  British. 
Now  I  must  tell  to  you  of  another  escape.  I  mean  from 
the  Southern  Confederacy.  For  Virginia  claimed  us  under 
the  conquest  of  Gen.  George  Rogers  Clark,  whose  expedi- 
tion she  herself  had  fitted  out,  and  the  expenses  thereof 
had  never  been  refunded  to  her.  In  1778,  her  Legislature 
created  the  county  of  Illinois,  embracing  all  of  our  present 
State.  Our  address  then  was  Chicago,  Va.  And,  but  for 
the  Ordinance  of  1787,  which  ceded  the  Northwestern  Ter- 
ritory to  the  United  States,  we  might  have  been  breeding 


14  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

slaves  up  to  the  time  of  Lincoln's  Proclamation,  and  the 
white  laborers,  who  have  done  so  much  for  the  develop- 
ment of  our  city,  been  entirely  excluded.  As  it  was,  we 
were  only  compelled  to  catch  the  slaves  that  others  bred, 
'whilst  following  .the  old  Indian  trail  to  Canada  and  freedom. 

But  we  made  still  another  escape.  You  remember,  some 
years  ago,  that  there  were  some  politicians  who  were  riding 
a  horse  with  a  head  upon  both  ends,  called  "Squatter 
Sovereignty."  Gen.  Lewis  Cass,  of  Michigan,  claimed  to 
have  discovered  the  original  horse  in  the  Presidential 
woods.  This  horse  did  as  much  to  precipitate  our  late 
War  of  the  Rebellion  as  all  other  things  put  together;  as 
its  doctrine  was  that  whoever  got  possession  of  a  Territory 
first  had  it.  The  original  battle-ground  was  Kansas,  where 
.the  friends  of  white  labor  and  black  labor  struggled  for 
supremacy.  Gen.  Cass  was,  of  course,  riding  his  horse,  as 
fast  as  he  could  gallop,  both  ways,  with  the  cry  of  "  Squatter 
Sovereignty  forever." 

Our  first  settler  was  a  negro  from  San  Domingo,  who 
drove  his  stakes  about  1779,  just  across  the  river  on  the 
North  Side,  named  Jean  Baptist  Point  au  Sable,  at  what 
was  afterwards  known  as  the  old  Kinzie  place,  a  few  rods 
east  from  where  we  now  are.  He  did  his  best  to  ingratiate 
himself  into  the  affections  of  the  Indians,  with  the  idea  of 
becoming  a  chief,  and  then  sending  back  for  more  of  his 
countrymen,  and  planting  a  San  Domingo  colony  here. 
After  living  here  a  few  years,  and  meeting  with  poor  suc- 
cess, in  becoming  chief,  he  removed  to  Peoria,  then  known 
as  Fort  Clark,  where  he  died.  Had  Au  Sable  succeeded 
in  his  designs  and  the  doctrine  of  squatter  sovereignty  pre- 
vailed, how  different  would  have  been  our  condition?  We, 
white  folks,  would  then  have  been  compelled  to  ask  for  a 
Civil-Rights  bill  to  protect  us  whilst  patronizing  a  negro 
saloon  or  a  negro  theatre. 

In  1800,  Illinois  was  organized  into  a  Territory  with 
Indiana,  under  the  name  of  Indiana  Territory,  with  Gen. 
William  Henry  Harrison  as  Governor,  and  our  seat  of  gov- 
ernment was  Vincennes,  Ind.,  and  then  we  were  all  Hoo- 
siers.  Our  address  then  was  Chicago,  Ind.  But  Chicago 
acquired  no  importance  until  1804,  when  a  fort  was  erected 
here,  named  after  Gen.  Henry  Dearborn,  a  conspicuous 
officer  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  afterwards  Secre- 
tary of  War. 


B^   HON.   JOHN   WENTWORTH.  15 

And  with  the  troops  came  John  Kinzie,  father  of  the  late 
esteemed  John  H.  and  Robert  A.  Kinzie,  whose  children 
still  reside  here.  Mr.  Kinzie  was  born  in  Quebec,  in  1763, 
and  settled  upon  the  premises  of  the  original  squatter 
sovereign,  Au  Sable,  and  owned  them  until  he  died  in  Fort 
Dearborn,  Jan.  6,  1828,*  and  his  son  John  H.  Kinzie  lived 
upon  them  until  his  death,  a  few  years  ago.  His  house  was 
the  first  erected  in  Chicago,  and  it  was  standing  long  after 
Chicago  became  a  city.  In  1809,  we  ceased  to  be  Hoo- 
siers,  and  became  Suckers  by  the  organization  of  Illinois 
Territory,  with  Ninian  Edwards  as  Governor,  and  with  the 
seat  of  Government  at  Kaskaskia.  At  the  time  of  the  mas- 
sacre, in  1812,  Chicago  contained  not  to  exceed  a  half- 
dozen  families,  outside  of  the  fort;  and,  if  there  are  living 
to-day  any  descendants  of  those  inside  or  outside  of  the  fort 
at  that  time,  besides  the  descendants  of  Mr.  Kinzie,  I  knowfj^ 
it  not.  Perhaps  I  should  except  a  sister  of  the  Indian  chief  q.  / 
LaFramboise,  who  was  living  in  Mr.  Kinzie's  family,  and  ^ 
who  afterwards  married  John  Baptiste  Beaubien,  who  was 
living  at  Mackinaw  at  the  time  it  was  taken,  and  whose 
descendants  are  quite  numerous  in  this  vicinity. 

In  1818,  Illinois  was  admitted  into  the  Union,  and  there- 
by we  made  another  very  remarkable  escape, — that  from 
being  Wisconsin  Badgers.  For,  by  the  terms  of  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787,  three  States  were  to  be  framed  south  of  a 
line  drawn  due  east  and  west  from  the  most  southerly  bend 
of  Lake  Michigan,  and  two  north  of  it.  When  Michigan 
applied  for  admission  into  the  Union,  she  claimed  that, 
under  the  terms  of  the  Ordinance,  she  was  entitled  to  To- 
ledo, in  Ohio,  and  Michigan  City,  in  Indiana.  It  will  be 
remembered,  that  Michigan  sent  out  troops  to  seize  and 
hold  Toledo;  but  Ohio  was  prepared  to  give  them  so  warm 
a  reception  that  history  only  records  the  number  of  water- 
melon-patches that  were  attacked.  When  Wisconsin  was- 
preparing  to  apply  for  admission  into  the  Union,  she  prof- 
ited by  the  mistakes  of  Michigan,  and  came  not  with  blun- 
derbusses but  with  sweetmeats.  Her  newspapers  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that,  from  the  southernmost  bend  of 
Lake  Michigan,  as  fixed  by  the  Ordinance,  our  boundary 
had  been  extended  to  the  latitude  of  42  degrees  30  minutes. 
Her  citizens  sent  men  of  talents  all  through  the  disputed 
tract,  public  meetings  were  called,  and  not  only  was  justice 
pleaded,  but  the  advantages  were  thoroughly  discussed. 


1 6  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

Many  settlements  were  unanimous,  and  others  were  divided 
in  favor  of  being  united  with  Wisconsin.  The  disputed 
tract  had  two  Congressmen,  the  Hon.  Joseph  P.  Hoge,  of 
Galena,  now  an  eminent  lawyer  in  SanFrancisco,  and  myself. 
And  Wisconsin,  offered  to  make  us  the  first  two  Senators, 
and  also  offered  to  give  the  disputed  tract  the  first  Gover- 
nor. It  was  proposed  to  enact  a  law  submitting  the  bind- 
ing force  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States.  Our  Chicago  people  were  much 
divided  upon  the  question,  and  I  really  believe  serious  con- 
sequences would  have  grown  out  of  it  but  for  the  embar- 
rassments that  would  be  caused  by  having  the  Illinois  and 
Michigan  Canal  owned  by  two  States.  As  an  original 
question,  all  the  five  States  being  out  of  the  Union,  there 
is  no  doubt  but  Congress  would  have  enforced  the  provi- 
sions of  the  Ordinance,  and  Illinois  been  cut  off  from  the 
lakes,  and  her  Legislature  saved  from  the  annoyance  of 
Chicago  lobbyists.  But  might  made  right.  Wisconsin  be- 
ing out  of  the  Union,  she  could  only  come  into  it  with 
boundaries  prescribed  by  a  majority  of  the  States  in  it,  and 
I  lost  the  honor  of  being  a  Wisconsin  United  States  Sena- 
tor. But  I  am  trespassing  upon  what  should  constitute  a 
second  chapter  in  Chicago's  history,  embracing  the  period 
from  the  massacre  to  its  incorporation  as  a  city. 

It  was  upon  the  7th  of  August,  1812,  that  a  messenger 
arrived  from  General  Hull,  then  at  Detroit,  whose  division 
embraced  Chicago  and  Mackinaw,  as  well  as  Detroit,  an- 
nouncing that  war  had  been  declared  against  Great  Britain 
on  the  i  Qth  of  June,  that  Mackinaw  had  been  taken  by  the 
British  on  the  lyth  of  July,  and  ordering  the  commandant, 
Capt.  Heald,  to  distribute  the  United  States  property  to 
the  Indians  in  the  neighborhood,  abandon  the  fort,  and 
report  to  Fort  Wayne,  in  Indiana,  with  his  company  of 
about  seventy-five  men.  Mark  the  difficulty  of  communi- 
cating news  in  those  days  !  War  declared  June  igth,  not 
known  in  Chicago  till  August  7th.  Mackinaw  taken  July 
1 7th,  and  not  known  until  August  7th.  But  we  got  beauti- 
fully even  with  Great  Britain  for  her  surprise  of  our  fort  at 
Mackinaw,  before  the  war  ended.  For,  when  the  British 
and  American  Commissioners  met  at  Ghent,  in  1814,  to 
make  a  treaty  of  peace,  Britain  stopped  sending  troops  to 
Gen.  Packenham,  at  New  Orleans.  The  treaty  of  peace 
was  signed  Dec.  i4th,  1814,  and  Gen.  Jackson  squared  the 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  17 

accounts  for  Mackinaw  upon  the  day  we  celebrate,  the  8th 
of  January  thereafter.  The  British  had  not  received  the 
news  of  peace,  nor  had  our  soldiers  in  the  fort  at  Mackinaw 
received  the  news  of  the  declaration  of  war.  Henry  Clay 
Avas  one  of  the  Commissioners,  and  I  shall  never  forget, 
in  my  early  days  in  Congress,  his  expressions  of  regret  that 
the  news  of  peace  could  not  have  reached  this  country 
earlier,  as  the  battle  of  New  Orleans  made  a  great  man  of 
Andrew  Jackson,  defeated  the  re-election  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  put  down  the  United  States  Bank,  brought  the 
Democrats  into  power,  and  perhaps,  if  he  were  alive  now, 
he  would  say,  caused  the  Rebellion.  The  surprise  at  Mack- 
inaw, in  1812,  proved  a  very  important  warning  to  the 
people  along  the  coast  of  the  Western  Lakes.  For,  as 
towns  began  to  multiply,  the  inhabitants  saw,  in  case  of 
war,  how  quickly  any  of  the  British  lake  vessels  could  be 
supplied  with  guns  adequate  to  their  destruction.  During 
the  controversy  upon  the  Oregon  question,  under  President 
Polk's  administration,  when  war  was  considered  imminent, 
men  were  constantly  devising  plans  for  our  lake  defences, 
.and  all  urged  strengthening  the  fortifications  at  Mackinaw, 
as  there  would  be  no  hope  for  our  Lake  Michigan  towns,  if 
the  British  should  capture  it  again,  or  manage  to  get  a  war 
vessel  this  side  of  it,  even  if  we  still  held  possession  of  it. 
Mayor  Augustus  Garrett,  of  this  city,  called  a  meeting  of 
our  prominent  citizens,  for  consultation,  and,  to  show  my 
constituents  that  I  was  fully  alive  to  their  interests,  I  made 
a  speech  in  Congress,  so  animated  that  the  New  York 
Herald  got  up  a  caricature,  representing  the  British  Lion, 
and  myself  behind  it,  with  a  club  in  my  hands,  entitled 
"  Long  John,  of  Illinois,  chasing  the  British  Lion."  I  re- 
member that  Jefferson  Davis,  who  was  a  member  of  Con- 
gress from  Mississippi,  alarmed  me  very  much,  by  asserting 
that  there  was  no  way  in  which  Chicago  could  be  defended, 
and  that  our  shipping  could  not  be  got  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  enemies'  guns.  The  Ogden-Wentworth  Ditch,  up  the 
South  Branch,  had  not  then  been  constructed.  He  also 
said  that  such  was  the  case  with  all  our  Lake  Michigan 
towns,  save  Calumet, —  now  called  South  Chicago, —  and 
that  was  the  only  harbor  he  would  vote  to  improve  under  a 
military  necessity.  This  alarmed  me  the  more,  as  there  had 
always  been  an  influential  party  at  Chicago  who  contended 
that  our  city  ought  to  have  been,  and  would  eventually  be, 
2 


1 8  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

there.  Jefferson  Davis  was  recognized  as  good  authority  on 
this  point,  as  soon  after  leaving  West  Point,  he  assisted  in 
the  survey  of  the  Upper  Lakes,  and  in  the  construction  of 
Fort  Winnebago,  in  Wisconsin,  and  is  still  remembered  in 
the  WTest  by  many  of  its  early  settlers.  A  Wisconsin  lady, 
who  attended  many  parties  with  him,  when  he  was  a  young 
lieutenant,  recently  described  him  to  me  as  very  retiring  and 
meditative,  and  always  seemed  to  be  contriving  something, 
or  thinking  of  something  outside  of  the  company,  and  when 
the  rebellion  broke  out,  she  remembered  this  trait  and  now 
has  no  doubt  but  that  he  was  plotting  treason.  And,  by 
the  way,  she  suggested  that  she  knows  a  lady  in  Wisconsin 
who  might  have  been  Mrs.  Davis,  and  would  have  been 
but  for  her  father's  constantly  telling  her  that  an  army  offi- 
cer was  just  like  a  sailor,  and  had  a  lover  in  every  port. 

Whilst  we  were  thus  alarmed  about  the  safety  of  our 
towns,  the  Canadians  were  equally  alarmed  about  theirs. 
This  led  to  a  treaty,  which  provided  that  but  one  armed- 
vessel  should  be  kept  by  either  country  on  the  upper  lakes, 
and  that  vessel  should  carry  but  one  gun.  Hence  our  war 
steamer,  Michigan  !  She  has  one  gun  !  And  there  is  a 
Canadian  vessel  that  has  one  also.  Now,  when  either 
nation  takes  another  gun  on  board,  then  comes  war,  under 
the  treaty.  But  this  treaty  effectually  allayed  the  excite- 
ment which  Western  men  had  created  upon  the  subject  of  a 
ship  canal  connecting  the  lakes  with  the  rivers.  Commo- 
dore Maury,  of  our  navy,  and  more  recently  of  the  rebel 
navy,  was  one  of  the  many  very  able  writers  and  speakers  in 
our  behalf.  He  treated  the  subject  of  Western  naval  defenses 
so  ably  that  his  articles  were  copied  all  over  the  country,, 
and  he  thus  took  the  matter  out  of  the  hands  of  Western 
men  entirely.  He  elevated  the  ship  canal  above  all  local  or 
commercial  considerations,  and  placed  it  upon  the  grounds 
of  a  great  national  necessity.  But,  the  war  fever  against 
Great  Britain  having  died  away,  and  the  people  having  had 
time  for  reflection,  our  fear  that,  in  any  future  war,  Great 
Britain  could  send  war  vessels  through  the  Welland  Canal, 
is  at  once  dispelled  by  the  reflection  that,  if  we  had  a  ship 
canal,  long  before  war  vessels  could^  be  .sent  frora^^jgj^ 
Orleans,  up  the  Mississippi,  through  ft  to  Chicago,  Canada 
would  be  taken,  and  the  Welland  Canal  would  be  ours. 
And  there  is  a  general  feeling  among  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  that  a  country  of  the  resources  of  Canada, 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  19 

that  is  so  destitute  of  patriotic  spirit,  in  this  enlightened 
age,  when  Republics  are  the  order  of  the  day,  as  to  be  the 
only  spot  on  the  American  Continent,  owing  sole  allegiance 
to  a  foreign  monarchy,  could  not  do  us  much  harm  in  war. 
There  is  not  a  people  on  earth  of  the  intelligence  and 
wealth  of  the  Canadians,  who  bear  their  yoke  so  easily;  and 
there  is  no  hope  of  our  ever  making  enough  out  of  their 
warlike  spirit  to  scare  our  Government  into  making  an  ap- 
propriation for  a  ship  canal,  so  much  needed  for  commer- 
cial purposes. 

History  tells  us  that,  had  the  commandant  of  the  fort  at 
Chicago  done  either  of  two  things,  the  massacre  of  1812 
could  have  been  avoided.  He  could  have  abandoned  it 
instantaneously  after  receiving  his  order,  and  reached  Fort 
Wayne  by  a  forced  march,  or  he  could  have  remained  and 
defended  it.  But  the  most  friendly  relations  had  always 
existed  between  the  occupants  of  the  fort  and  the  Indians, 
and  the  commandant  of  the  fort  was  ordered,  when  he  left, 
to  distribute  the  surplus  property  in  the  fort  to  them.  They 
had  passed  in  arid  out,  at  their  pleasure,  ever  since  its  con- 
struction, and  could  have  surprised  it  at  any  time.  The 
surprise  of  Gen.  Harrison,  at  Tippecanoe,  the  fall  before, 
and  the  final  defeat  of  the  Indians  there,  had  seemingly  had 
no  bad  effect  upon  those  around  Chicago.  But  the  com- 
mandant here  was  a  circumlocutionist,  and  believed  in  red 
tape.  He  took  from  the  7th  to  the  i5th  of  August  to 
march  his  troops  'out  of  the  fort,  accompanied  by  the  few 
inhabitants  of  the  place  who  had  sought  his  protection,  to 
the  most  sudden  and  barbarous  of  deaths.  Until  within  a 
few  years,  there  were  high  sandhills  on  the  lake  shore, 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  fort,  near  the  Illinois 
Central  round-house,  from  behind  which  the  Indians  rushed 
upon  their  hellish  work,  sparing  neither  age  nor  sex.  The 
facts  are  too  familiar  to  you  to  need  a  minute  descrip- 
tion here. 

The  news  of  the  declaration  of  war  was  sent  from  Detroit 
to  Fort  Wayne,  the  nearest  military  post  to  Chicago,  at  the 
same  time  that  it  was  sent  to  Chicago,  and  Cant.  William 
^•HM  Wells,  a^sMgliafof  the  wifeT  of  the  commandant  at 
Chicago,  at  once  collected  a  few  friendly  Indians,  and 
started  to  render  assistance  to  th,e  Chicago  troops  in  reach- 
ing Fort  Wayne.  He  arrived  just  in  time  to  share  the  fate 
of  the  men  whom  he  came  to  assist.  But  he  fought  so 


20  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

heroically,  and  destroyed  so  many  of  the  fiends  before  he 
fell,  that  many  of  them  began  to  think  he  had  a  charmed 
life,  and  their  wrath  was  so  great  against  him  that,  ere  he 
was  cold  in  death,  they  cut  out  his  heart,  and  distributed  it 
in  pieces  among  the  relatives  of  the  Indians  who  had  fallen 
by  his  hand.  When  our  city  was  laid  out,  one  of  its  princi- 
pal streets  was  named  in  honor  of  him.  The  savages  killed 
him,  and  worse  than  savages  removed  his  name  from  the 
street.  For  inefficient  city  officers  allowed  gamblers  to 
settle  therein,  and  with  them  came  the  disciples  of  Poti- 
phar's  wife,  and  that  crowd  of  moral  and  social  outcasts 
which  gamblers  instinctively  draw  around  themselves, 
wherever  they  go.  And  when,  at  last,  more  efficient  offi- 
cers exterminated  them,  the  property-holders  thought  they 
would  wipe  out  the  disgrace  which  official  incompetency  or 
degeneracy  had  inflicted  upon  them,  by  erasing  from  the 
street  the  name  of  one  who  so  heroically  gave  up  his  life  on 
the  ever-memorable  i5th  day  of  August,  1812.  And  the 
same  infamous  crowd  were  recently  about  to  inflict  a 
similar  disgrace  upon  the  street  named  in  honor  of  Gen. 
George  Rogers  Clark,  when  one  of  our  Judges,  knowing  his 
duty,  dare  do  it,  and  gave  them  to  understand  that  there 
were  laws  in  this  city,  and  gamblers  must  obey  them,  as 
well  as  the  poor,  hungry,  and  half-clad  Communes.  There 
was  once  just  such  a  crowd,  confiscating  property  in  a 
certain  sandy  location,  upon  this,  the  North  Side,  not  far 
from  here.*  But  there  was  a  way  found  to  save  the  value 
of  property,  without  changing  the  names  of  streets.  What- 
ever else  may  be  said  of  our  city,  never  let  it  be  said  again 
that  men  in  high  official  position  had  so  gilded  the  worst  of 
all  vices,  gambling,  that  the  names  of  streets  had  to  be 
changed,  to  save  property  from  that  depreciation  and  dis- 
grace which  all  history  and  all  Chicago  experience  tells  us 
never  fails  to  attend  its  existence. 

The  Indians  must  have  received  the  news  of  the  war  and 
the  fall  of  Mackinaw  before  the  fort  was  evacuated.  In 
those  days,  every  Indian  was  a  British  telegraph.  For, 
even  after  the  French  ceded  the  Canadas  to  the  British,  the 

*  This  alludes  to  the  summary  destruction,  by  the  Police,  under  the 
administration  of  Mayor  Wentworth,  in  1857,  of  a  large  number  of 
wooden  shanties,  erected  near  the  beach  of  the  Lake,  on  the  North 
Side,  without  authority  of  law,  and  occupied  by  criminal  classes. 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  21 

latter  were  in  the  habit  of  assembling  the  Chiefs  of  all  the 
Indian  tribes  once  a  year,  at  Maiden,  Canada,  nearly  oppo- 
site Detroit,  and  distributing  valuable  presents  among  them. 
And  as  early  as  the  war  of  1812,  there  were  well-marked 
Indian  trails  from  every  part  of  the  Indian  country,  via 
Detroit,  to  Maiden.  The  British  could  trust  every  Indian, 
and  send  a  message  anywhere  with  him.  The  Americans 
could  not  trust  any  message  with  an  Indian,  and  if  they 
undertook  to  send  a  white  man  through  the  Indian  country, 
he  was  made  to  suffer  the  most  distressing  death.  At  any 
rate,  the  Indians  knew  that  the  soldiers  were  to  abandon 
the  fort,  and  they  volunteered  to  escort  them  a  certain  dis- 
tance on  their  march  to  Fort  Wayne. 

Thirsting  for  more  blood,  our  Indians  hastened  to  Fort 
Wayne;    and  joining  the    Indians   in   that  vicinity,   they 
attacked  it,  August  25th,  in  hopes  of  another  massacre. 
But  it  held  out  until  relieved  by  Gen.  Harrison's  command, 
Sept.   1 6th.     The  Indians  there  learned,  if  they  did  not 
know  it  before,  that  Gen.  Hull  had  surrendered  his  army  at         ,  . 
Detroit,  which  he  did  without  firing  a  gun,  on  the  very  day  —$* /"V" 
G£  the  massacre  at  Chicago ;  and  there  lives  at  Chicago  now1 
a  gentlemen,  Mark  Beaubien,  who  was  present,  and  wit- 
nessed the  indignation  of  our  soldiers,  as  they  stepped  into 
the  boats  that  were  to  convey  them  across  the  Detroit  River 
to  the  British  headquarters.     They  looked  upon  it  more  as 
a  betrayal  than  a  surrender. 

Our  Indians  then  hurried  on  to  unite  with  the  British 
army,  and  had  a  chance  to  slake  their  thirst  for  blood  at  the 
terrible  massacre  at  River  Raisin,  baser  and  more  cowardly 
than  that  at  Chicago,  because  the  Americans  had  sur- 
rendered to  the  British  army,  which  was  in  honor  bound  to 
protect  them. 

John  Kinzie,  who  had  fled  with  his  family  from  Chicago 
to  Detroit,  was  sezied  by  the  order  of  the  British  General, 
Henry  A.  Proctor,  and  imprisoned  in  Fort  Maiden  as  a 
spy;  and  there  in  that  fort  was  all  that  was  left  of  Chicago, 
the  balance  dead,  or  supposed  to  be.  It  has  been  the  for- 
tune of  our  soldiers,  from  the  days  of  the  Revolution  down 
to  and  including  those  of  our  Rebellion,  to  meet  with  sad 
reverses  at  first.  But  they  have  ever  grown  strong  under 
such  reverses,  and  they  just  begin  to  fight  successfully  as 
the  war  terminates.  Our  sole  Chicago  citizen  remained  a 
prisoner  until  the  ever-memorable  words  of  Commodore 


22  REMINISCENCES   OF  EARLY   CHICAGO. 

Perry,  uttered  on  the  29th  of  September,  1813,  reached  the 
fort:  "We  have  met  the  enemy,  and  they  are  ours."  Now 
hurrah  for  Chicago  !  She  had  Fort  Maiden  all  to  herself. 
She  held  the  key  to  the  position.  No  vessel  could  pass  up 
the  Detroit  River,  except  under  her  guns.  The  British  had 
fled  from  the  fort  where  Mr.  Kinzie  was,  leaving  him  the 
sole  occupant.  Gen.  Harrison  retook  Detroit,  as  it  had 
been  surrendered,  without  firing  a  gun.  Perry  had  swept 
the  lake,  and  our  forces,  in  the  presence  of  Chicago's  sole 
citizen,  running  up  the  stars  and  stripes,  held  Fort  Maiden. 
The  day  of  jubilee  had  come.  When  the  British  retreated 
up  the  Thames,  our  Indians  went  with  them,  under 
Tecumseh,  who  had  a  commission  as  Brigadier-General; 
and  our  army  had  no  idea  of  letting  them  effect  a  union 
'  with  the  troops  that  were  fighting  Gen.  Brown's  command 
in  the  regions  below.  They  were  followed,  Tecumseh  fell, 
and  our  Indians  never  recovered  from  its  effects.  In  vain 
did  Black  Hawk,  in  1832,  try  to  unite  the  various  Indian 
tribes  in  one  common  cause,  against  the  United  States. 
They  knew  they  had  no  Tecumseh,  and  left  Black  Hawk  to 
fight  alone.  After  the  death  of  Tecumseh,  it  came  to  light 
that,  in  1809,  he  had  planned  the  entire  destruction  of  the 
people  of  Chicago,  inside  and  outside  the^fart;  but  some 
unforeseen  circumstance  prevented  it,  just  as  it  was  upon 
the  point  of  execution. 

When  Col.  Richard  M.  Johnson  was  a  candidate  for 
Vice-President,  upon  the  same  ticket  as  Mr.  Van  Buren  for 
President,  his  opponents  disputed  that  he  was  the  man  who 
killed  Tecumseh.  Knowing  that  Shabonee,- one  of  the 
Chiefs  of  the  Pottawatomies,  and  who  was  with  Tecumseh 
when  he  fell,  resided  in  this  vicinity,  I  sought  an  interview, 
but  was  told  in  advance  that  the  only  way  I  could  interest 
him  was  to  make  inquiries  about  Tecumseh,  for  whom  he, 
in  common  with  all  others  of  our  Western  Indians,  had  the 
utmost  adoration  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Shabonee  marked 
upon  the  ground  the  position  of  the  British  and  the  Indians 
when  met  by  the  pursuing  Americans,  Gen.  Proctor  in  the 
command  of  the  one,  and  Tecumseh  of  the  other.  Then  he 
described  the  British  as  ignominiously  fleeing,  and  leaving 
the  Indians  to  take  care  of  themselves.  He  said  the  In- 
dians had  been  betrayed  by  every  party  they  had  assisted. 
The  French  first  agreed  to  protect  their  hunting  grounds 
for  them,  but  had  made  them  over  to  the  English,  who,  in 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WEXTWORTH.  23 

turn,  had  promised  to  protect  their  hunting  grounds,  and 
then  were  keeping  the  most  of  their  troops  to  fight  Napo- 
leon. The  battle  of  the  Thames  was  on  the  5th  of  October, 
1813,  and  the  allied  armies  entered  France  in  December 
following,  and  sent  Napoleon  to  Elba  shortly  after.  He 
said  Tecumseh  had  become  disgusted;  and,  if  he  could 
have  gotton  out  of  the  war,  he  never  would  have  allowed 
his  tribes  to  fight  the  Americans  again.  Shabonee  said 
the  British  were  flying  and  the  Americans  were  charging 
when  Col.  Johnson,  wounded,  fell  from  his  horse.  You 
ought  to  have  seen  old  Shabonee,  at  this  part  of  his  narra- 
tion. No  professed  tragedian  can  do  him  justice.  An 
Indian  talks  much  more  with  his  countenance  than  the 
white  man.  Up  to  this  time,  his  countenance  bore  marks 
of  gloom,  doubt,  despair.  He  knelt  down  and  defined  Col. 
Johnson's  position.  Then  he  ran  back  some  distance, 
turned,  seized  a  club,  and  with  the  countenance  of  a  fiend 
incarnate,  he  gave  Tecumseh's  last  rallying  yell,  and,  brand- 
ishing his  club  like  an  Indian  tomahawk  in  one  hand,  and 
his  knife  in  the  other,  as  if  to  take  a  scalp,  he  rushed  to- 
wards the  spot  where  Col.  Johnson  was  supposed  to  be 
suffering  from  his  wounds  ;  but,  suddenly  placing  his  hand 
upon  his  side,  as  if  shot,  he  fell,  and  imitated  the  dying 
Tecumseh.  His  description  of  Col.  Johnson's  dress  and 
horse  was  very  minute,  and  when  I  told  it  to  Col.  Johnson, 
at  Washington,  he  said  he  could  have  given  no  better  des- 
cription himself.  Shabonee  proved  a  good  citizen,  as  did 
the  many  Indian  Chiefs  who  passed  the  remainder  of  their 
days  in  this  vicinity  ;  all  saying  that  we  had  conquered  the 
French  and  British,  and  nothing  could  hinder  our  ultimate 
possession  of  all  their  forests  ;  and  all  bearing  witness  that 
the  great  Tecumseh  would  have  settled  down  in  peace 
among  the  white  folks,  as  they  themselves  were  doing,  could 
he  have  been  spared,  cursing  both  French  and  British  for 
treachery  and  ingratitude.  *Shabonee  was  the  last  of  our 
Indian  Chiefs  to  die.  He  expired  in  the  town  o 
Norman,  on  his  farm  of  twenty  acres,  July  lyth,  1859,  aged 
eighty-four,  near  Morris,  Grundy  County,  in  this  State,  leav- 
ing a  son,  now  living  in  Kansas,  where  also  lives  a  grand- 
son, who  is  one  of  the  principal  Chiefs  of  what  was  once 
the  powerful  tribe  of  Pottawatomies. 

From  the  massacre  of  1812  to  1816,  nothing  has  ever 
been  known  of  our  infant.     He  slept  on.  .  The  stars  of  the 


-/"  * 
d.  ^o^M 


24  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

East  may  have  shone  upon  him ;  but  there  were  no  shep- 
herds to  be  guided  to  his  manger— no  Pharaoh's  daughter 
to  nourish  him  in  his  seclusion.  When  the  troops  came 
here  in  that  year,  to  reconstruct  the  fort,  they  found  every- 
thing exactly  as  the  massacre  had  left  it.  The  bones  of  the 
slain  had  never  been  disturbed,  and  the  first  work  of  the 
soldiers  was  to  collect  and  bury  them.  That  same  year,  a 
treaty  was  made  at  St.  Louis,  securing  a  strip  of  land,  twen- 
ty miles  wide,  from  Ottawa  to  Chicago.  Thus  early  was 
the  importance  of  the  canal  appreciated.  Illinois  Territory 
became  a  State  in  1818,  and  Gov.  Bond,  in  his  inaugural  of 
that  year  and  his  valedictory  in  1822,  called  attention  to  the 
subject ;  and  his  successor,  Gov.  Coles,  repeated  his  rec- 
ommendation. In  1 8 1 8,  when  our  esteemed  fellow-citizen, 
Col.  Gurdon  S.  Hubbard,  came  to  Chicago,  there  were  but 
two  families  outside  of  the  fort,  those  of  John  Kinzie  and 
Antoine  Oilmette  (for  whom  the  town  of  Wilmette,  in  Cook 
Co.,  is  named,  where  he  passed  the  most  of  his  days,  leav- 
ing several  descendants).  In  1821,  the  first  steamer  ever 
upon  the  lakes,  "Walk  in  the  Water,"  made  her  first  trip  to 
Green  Bay,  but  there  was  no  business  to  take  her  to 
Chicago.  Col.  Hubbard  came  from  Montreal,  all  the  way 
by  water,  in  an  open  row-boat,  called  by  the  French,  "  bat- 
teaux,"  coming  via  Toronto,  Lake  Simcoe,  and  Georgian 
Bay.  Gen.  John  McNeil,  one  of  the  heroes  at  the  battle  of 
Lundy's  Lane,  Canada,  in  1814,  was  stationed  here  soon 
after  the  reconstruction  of  the  fort,  and  he  claimed  that  one 
of  his  daughters  was  the  first  person  ever  born  in  the  fort. 
A  few  years  ago,  I  met  her  upon  Michigan  Avenue,  and 
she  said  she  had  been  trying  to  find  the  place  upon  which 
she  was  born,  claiming  the  honor  of  being  the  first  person 
ever  born  in  the  fort.  As  she  was  unmarried,  I  disliked  to 
ask  her  when  it  was.  There  are  several  persons  now  living 
in  Chicago,  who  claim  the  distinction  of  being  the  first 
white  person,  now  living,  born  here.  Alexander  Beaubien,. 
son  of  the  late  John  B.  Beaubien,  now  present,  was  born 
here,  January  28th,  1822.  There  are  ladies  who  claim  a 
prior  birth,  but  they  decline  particular  dates.  Yet  some  of 
the  deceased  children  of  John  Kinzie  and  Col.  William 
Whistler,  who  built  the  Fort,  in  1 804,  were  born  before  any 
of  them."* 

*  Ellen  M.  Kinzie,  who  married  (i)  Dr.  Alexander  Wolcott,  of  this 
city,  and  (2)  George  C.  Bates,  of  Detroit,  Mich.,  born  in  1805,  has  no 


BY   HON.  JOHN  AVENT WORTH.  25 

In  1821,  General  Lewis  Cass  came  here  in  a  birch-bark 
canoe,  and  made  a  treaty  with  the  Indians,  which  secured  the 
right  to  build  a  road,  from  Chicago  to  both  Fort  Wayne  and 
Detroit.  Our  Indians  were  so  peaceably  disposed,  after  the 
fall  of  Tecumseh,  that,  from  1823,  the  Government  made  a 
mere  matter  of  convenience  of  our  fort,  often  withdrawing 
the  troops  entirely,  until  the  great  Black  Hawk  scare,  in 
1832. 

In  1823,  the  late  Archibald  Clybourn,  a  Justice  of  the 
Peace,  early  after  the  organization  of  Cook  Co.,  whose 
widow  and  children  now  reside  in  our  city,  came  here,  from 
Virginia ;  and  it  was  then  that  Prof.  William  H.  Keating,  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  visited  here,  and  thus  wrote : 
"  Their  log  or  bark  houses  are  low,  filthy,  and  disgusting, 
displaying  not  the  least  trace  of  comfort."  Up  to  1828, 
only  one  sail  vessel  made  trips  to  Chicago,  and  that  to  bring 
supplies  to  the  fort.  The  American  Fur  Company  had  done 
all  its  business  in  row-boats,  better  known  in  those  days 
as  Mackinaw  boats.  Col.  Gurdon  S.  Hubbard  made  a  trip, 
around  the  lakes,  from  Detroit,  in  a  sail  vessel,  that  year. 
Although  the  canal  land  grant  was  made  in  1827,  the  law 
under  which  it  was  commenced  did  not  pass  until  the  winter 
of  1835-6.  Our  nearest  land-office  was  in  Southern  Illinois, 
at  Palestine,  Crawford  County,  until  1834,  when  one  was 
established  at  Danville,  Vermillion  County,  a  little  further 
north.  There  was  none  at  Chicago  until  1835,  when  our 
present  fellow-citizen,  Col.  Edmund  D.  Taylor,  was  ap- 
pointed receiver.  In  1830,  there  were  only  fifteen  dwelling- 
houses,  only  three  of  which  remained  in  1857,  and  less  than 
100  inhabitants;  and  the  principal  settlement  here  was  at 
the  forks  of  the  Chicago  River,  then  called  "  Wolf  Point/' 
where  there  was  a  tavern,  school-house,  and  meeting-house, 
where  Jesse  Walker,  a  Methodist  missionary,  residing  at 
Plainfield,  Will  County,  occasionally  preached.  There  still 
stands,  at  the  northeast  corner  of  Lake  and  Canal  Streets, 
a  building  known  for  many  years  as  the  "  Green  Tree 
Hotel,"  erected  in  1831,  probably  the  oldest  building  in 
Chicago.  But  there  was  still  another  small  tavern,  on  the 

competitor  for  being  the  first  white  child  born  in  Chicago.  And  her 
sister,  Maria  H.  Kinzie,  now  the  wife  of  General  David  Hunter,  of  the 
U.  S.  Army,  born  in  1807,  is  the  oldest  white  person  living  who  was 
born  in  Chicago. 


26  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

North  Side,  near  the  Forks,  where  Gen.  Scott  stopped, 
when  he  came  with  the  troops,  in  1832,  kept  by  Elijah 
Wentworth,  Sr.  And  there  was  another  small  tavern,  kept, 
in  1831,  by  Mark  Beaubien,  called  the  "Sauganash,"  on 
the  southeast  corner  of  Lake  and  Market  Streets,  known  as 
the  Wigwam  lot,  where  Abraham  Lincoln  was  nominated 
for  President.  On  the  block  north,  at  the  corner  of  Frank- 
lin and  Water  Streets,  the  Post-office  was  located,  when  I 
came  to  Chicago.  Mr.  Beaubien  also  kept  a  ferry  at  Lake 
Street,  beyond  which,  on  the  South  Branch,  there  was 
neither  bridge  nor  ferry.  It  was  at  this  hotel,  kept  by  the 
late  Aid.  John  Murphy,  whose  family  still  resides  here, 
whose  widow  is  present  upon  the  platform,  that  I  took  my 
first  meal,  upon  my  arrival  in  this  city.  In  1830,  the  steam- 
boat, Henry  Clay,  made  trips  to  Green  Bay,  from  Detroit, 
solely  in  the  fur-trade  interest.  There  was  no  trade  to  take 
her  to  Chicago.  At  that  period,  and  for  some  time  thereafter, 
the  South  Side  was  one  entire  marsh,  with  several  creeks 
running  into  the  river.  There  was  a  small  bridge  on  Water 
Street,  over  a  stream  which  drained  a  slough,  near  State 
Street,  and  there  was  often  good  duck  shooting  north  of 
Madison  Street,  some  time  after  I  came  here.  In  1836, 
the  forwarding  houses  were  all  upon  the  North  Side. 

Black  Hawk,  Chief  of  the  united  tribe  of  Sacs  and  Fox 
Indians,  was  born  about  1767,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Rock 
River,  and  there  were  his  headquarters,  until  he  made  a 
treaty,  ceding  his  lands  to  the  United  States,  and  agreeing 
to  go  to  Iowa.  He  went  there,  and  settlers  went  upon  his 
lands,  and  had  began  to  cultivate  them,  when  he  repudiated 
his  treaty,  returned  to  Illinois,  and  commenced  massacring 
them.  Before  the  United  States  could  take  up  the  matter, 
the  Governor  called  for  troops,  and  most  of  the  prominent 
politicians  volunteered  their  services,  and  raised  more  or 
less  soldiers,  to  go  under  their  own  particular  leadership. 
Black  Hawk  was  chased  up  into  Wisconsin,  captured,  and 
sent  to  Washington,  to  see  Gen.  Jackson.  Jack  Falstaff 
never  slew  as  many  men  in  buckram  as  each  and  every  one 
of  these  Illinois  politicians  did.  Squads  would  often  go  out 
from  camp,  and  hasten  back  with  accounts  of  their  miracu- 
lous escapes  from  large  bodies  of  Indians,  when  there  were 
none  in  the  vicinity.  An  alarm  was  given,  one  night,  when 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  men  in  the  State  mounted 
his  horse,  without  unhitching  him,  and  gave  him  a  spur, 


BY    HON.  JOHN   WEXTWORTH.  27 

when,  mistaking  the  stump  to  which  he  was  tied  for  an 
Indian  taking  hold  of  the  reins,  he  immediately  exclaimed  : 
"  I  surrender,  Mr.  Indian  !"  An  alarm  was  given  that  a 
large  body  of  Indians  was  approaching  the  Kankakee  set- 
tlements :  volunteers  turned  out,  and  found  them  to  be 
nothing  but  sand-hill  cranes.  If  an  Indian  was  found  dead 
on  the  prairie  anywhere,  several  would  exclaim:  "That's 
the  one  I  killed."  Mr.  Lincoln  had  an  inexhaustable  sup- 
ply of  stories  based  upon  his  experience  in  this  war,  but  he 
never  claimed  that  his  services  there  made  him  President. 
He  made  more,  in  his  Presidential  campaign,  out  of  the 
Tails  he  had  split,  than  out  of  the  Indian  scalps  he  had 
taken. 

Gen.  Scott  arrived  here  with  regular  troops,  to  take  the 
conduct  of  the  war  out  of  the  hands  of  the  State  authorities, 
/O  July^  1832,  in  the  steamer  " Sheldon  Thompson,"  Capt. 
A.  Walker,  the  first  steamboat  trip  ever  made  to  Chicago. 
But  his  stay  here  was  so  delayed  by  the  Asiatic  cholera,  in 
its  worst  form,  that  he  reached  Rock  Island,  on  the  Missis- 
sippi, late  in  August,  and  about  the  time  that  the  war 
Avas  closed,  by  the  capture  of  its  leader,  in  Wisconsin. 
Peace  was  made  with  the  Indians  in  September  of  that 
year.  The  cholera  was  so  fatal,  that  thirty  bodies  were 
thrown  overboard,  between  here  and  Mackinaw,  and  about 
100  died  at  Chicago.  The  deaths  were  so  sudden,  and  the 
burial  so  instantaneous  thereafter,  that  the  victims,  in  their 
last  agonies,  feared  that  they  would  be  buried  alive,  if  it 
could  be  called  a  burial ;  for  they  were  thrown  into  a  pit, 
at  the  northwest  corner  of  !Lake  Street  and  Wabash  Avenue. 
I  have  heard  Gen.  Scott  describe  this  as  the  most  affecting 
scene  of  his  life.  Gen.  Humphrey  Marshall,  a  member  of 
Congress  from  Kentucky,  who  was  then  here  as  a  Second 
Lieutenant,  gave  me  a  description  of  the  scene,  and  thought, 
thickly  settled  as  our  city  then  was,  he  could  find  the  place 
where  he  assisted  in  depositing  the  remains  of  the  victims, 
many  being  thrown  into  the  pit  in  a  few  hours  after  they 
had  assisted  in  depositing  their  comrades  there.  The  peo- 
ple all  through  the  Fox  and  Rock  River  Valleys  had  fled  to 
Fort  Dearborn,  for  protection  against  the  Indians;  but  they 
soon  fled  back,  having  a  greater  dread  of  the  cholera  than 
of  the  Indians.  The  Black  Hawk  war,  although  barren  of 
importance  in  a  military  point  of  view,  was  of  incalculable 
advantage  in  bringing  to  notice  the  fertile  country  in  the 


28  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 


Fox,  Rock,  and  Mississippi  River  Valleys,  and  expediting 
their  settlement.  Chicago  grew  rapidly,  under  a  develop- 
ment of  the  agricultural  resources  of  the  West.  From  a  city 
importing  breadstuff's,  she  soon  became  one  exporting  them. 

Aug.  4,  1 830,  Chicago  was  laid  out  into  lots,  by  the  Canal 
Commissioners,  and  they  were  sold  for  from  $10  to  $60 
each.  In  the  winter  of  1832-3,  Col.  Hubbard  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Illinois  Legislature,  and  he  introduced  the  first 
Railroad  bill  ever  introduced  into  that  body.  It  passed 
the  House  and  was  lost  in  the  Senate,  by  the  casting  vote 
of  Lieut.-Gov.  Casey.  Congress  had  given  the  power  to- 
make  either  a  railroad  or  a  canal.  On  November  26th, 
1833,  the  first  newspaper,  the  Chicago  Democrat,  was  estab- 
lished. Up  to  the  time  of  the  fire,  I  had  a  complete  file  of 
it,  for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century,  which  I  am  trying  to 
replace,  and  will  be  very  thankful  to  any  who  will  send  me 
a  single  copy,  or  even  a  fractional  copy  of  it.  In  the  winter 
of  1835-6,  the  canal  bill  was  passed,  and  on  the  evening  of 
the  1 5th  of  January,  1836,  our  citizens  assembled  in  mass- 
meeting,  and  voted  that  twelve  guns  be  fired  for  each  man 
that  voted  for  the  bill,  and  that  the  newspapers  (there  were 
then  two  weeklies)  be  requested  to  publish  their  names  in 
large  capitals,  and  the  names  of  those  who  voted  against 
the  bill  in  the  smallest  kind  of  italic  letters. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1836,  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
in  the  city,  whose  health  would  permit,  went  down  to  where 
the  canal  was  to  be  commenced,  then  called  Canalport,  and 
celebrated  the  removal  of  the  first  shovelful  of  dirt  by  the 
Canal  Commissioners,  of  which  Board,  Col.  G.  S.  Hubbard 
was  one,  and  he  made  a  speech.  Col.  Edmund  D.  Taylor, 
and  Walter  Kimball,  late  City  Comptroller,  both  now  living 
in  this  city,  were  Marshals  on  the  occasion.  The  late  Dr. 
William  B.  Egan  delivered  the  oration.  Near  the  place  was 
a  living  spring  of  water.  They  chopped  up  the  lemons  of 
several  full  boxes,  and  threw  them  into  the  spring,*  to  make 
lemonade  for  the  temperance  people.  Then  they  spoiled 
the  lemonade,  by  emptying  into  it  a  whole  barrel  of  whisky, 
which  so  penetrated  the  fountain-head  of  the  spring,  that 

*  Several  old  settlers  claim  that  this  throwing  whisky  and  lemons 
into  a  spring  also  took  place  at  the  time  that  John  Baptiste  Beaubien 
was  elected  Colonel  of  the  Militia,  at  the  house  of  Barney  H.  Laughton, 
on  the  O'Plain  River,  where  Riverside  now  is. 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  29 

Bridgeport  people  feel  the  effects  of  it  to  this  day  !  All  of 
you  who  ever  heard  the  late  Dr.  William  B.  Egan,  the  most 
eloquent  of  the  many  eloquent  Irish  orators  Chicago  has 
ever  had,  will  remember  how  fond  he  was  of  quoting  Pope's 
poetry.  Some  of  his  auditors  had  quietly  stolen  away,  and 
(as  they  had  supposed)  unobserved  by  him,  to  slake  their 
thirst  at  this  spring,  when  he  brought  down  the  crowd,  by 
pointing  his  finger  at  them,  and  exclaiming  : 

"  Drink  deep,  or  taste  not  that  Pierian  spring, — 
It's  shallow  draughts  intoxicate  the  brain, 
But  drinking  largely  sobers  you  again. " 

On  the  25th  of  October,  1836,  I  arrived  in  this  city,  just 
in  time  to  assist  in  waking  up  the  baby,  and  getting  it  out 
of  the  cradle.  Time  was  when  I  knew  every  man,  woman, 
and  child  in  the  city,  and  they  all  knew  me.  I  do  not 
know  but  what  the  latter  is  true  now.  Hitherto,  I  have 
spoken  from  tradition,  from  history,  and  from  what  living 
persons  have  told  me.  From  this  time  I  can  speak  of  events 
passing  under  my  personal  observation,  and  in  most  of 
which  I  have  participated  as  much  as  any  living  man.  I 
arrived  here  in  time  to  see  the  troops  take  their  final  depar- 
ture from  the  fort.  But  it  was  not  taken  down  until  about 
1855,  when  the  Marine  Hospital  was  erected  near  its  site.  I 
was  here  when  the  first  white  man  was  hung  in  Chicago,  on 
the  open  prairie,  a  short  distance  south  of  the  Court  House. 
I  was  upon  the  jury  that  convicted  him.  An  editor  abused 
me,  whilst  upon  the  jury,  and  the  Court  sentenced  him  for 
contempt.  Wilbur  F.  Storey  is  not  the  first  martyr.  His 
name  is  William  Stuart,  and  he  now  lives  in  Binghamton, 
N.  Y.  Our  Judge  E.  S.  Williams  is  not  the  first  judicial 
tyrant.  His  name  was  John  Pearson,*  and  he  now  lives  at 
Danville,  111.  Charles  H.  Reed  is  not  the  first  persecutor 
of  the  press.  His  name  is  Alonzo  Huntington,  and  he  lives 
in  Chicago  now.  Thus,  we  have  been  repeating  history. 
Tnat  is  all.  There  is  nothing  that  you  have  now,  that  we 
did  not  have  years  and  years  ago,  except  divorce  cases ; 
but  we  had  but  one  Judge  then,  and  only  two  terms  of 
court  in  a  year,  and  if  families  quarreled,  they  had  time  to 
cool  off,  make  peace,  and  perhaps  have  another  christening, 
before  the  next  term  of  court. 

It  was  on  Monday  evening,  the  23d  of  January,  1837, 

*  Hon.  John  Pearson,  Judge  of  the  Circuit  in  which  Chicago  was 
located  in  1837,  died  at  Danville,  111.,  May  3Oth,  1875. 


30  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

that  a  meeting  was  called  in  the  Saloon  Building,  southeast 
corner  of  Lake  and  Clark  Streets,  for  consultation  upon  a 
City  Charter.  It  was  called  by  the  order  of  the  last  Board 
of  Trustees  of  the  Town  of  Chicago,  of  which  body,  Eli  B. 
Williams,  now  a  resident  of  this  city,  was  President. 

The  Chicago  American  of  January  2ist,  1837,  says:  "The 
interests  of  our  town  require  a  charter;  the  constant  example 
of  our  Eastern  cities  will  justify  us  in  altering  it  at  every 
session,  until  it  meets  the  wants  of  a  large  commercial  town." 
However  much  we  may  have  neglected  other  privileges 
under  our  charter,  we  certainly  have  availed  ourselves  of 
that  of  "  altering  it  at  every  session,"  until  it  has  become, 
like  the  old  lady's  stocking,  "  darned  so  much  that  none  of 
the  original  remains." 

The  word  saloon,  in  those  days,  had  a  different  meaning 
from  what  it  does  now.  It  would  seem  strange  now  to 
announce  that  a  court  or  meeting  would  be  held,  or  a 
lecture  delivered  in  a  saloon  building.  When  first  opened,, 
it  was  the  largest  and  most  beautiful  hall  this  side  of  Buffalo. 
It  was  there  that  Stephen  A.  Douglas  made  his  first  speech 
in  Chicago.  It  was  there  that  the  first  joint  political  discus- 
sion was  ever  had  in  Northern  Illinois,  that  between  him,  in 
1838,  and  his  competitor  for  Congress,  John  T.  Stuart,, 
now  living  at  Springfield, 'in  this  State.  At  that  meeting  it 
was  that  one  of  our  citizens  launched  into  the  future,  and 
predicted  that  the  child  was  already  born  who  would  live 
to  see  a  population  of  over  50,000  here.  This  prediction 
seemed  so  preposterous  at  the  time,  that  several  persons  at 
once  exclaimed  "Town  lots  !"  "Town  lots  !"  as  if  he  had 
lots  to  sell,  and  was  trying  to  sell  them  by  humbugging  the 
people  as  to  the  town's  future  greatness.  I  think  I  made 
about  as  wild  a  prophecy  in  1843,  when  I,  as  member  of 
Congress,  using  the  prospects  of  our  city  as  a  reason  for 
increased  harbor  appropriations,  said:  "In  1832,  the  neces- 
sities of  the  Government,  during  the  Black  Hawk  War,  com- 
pelled the  first  steamboat  to  make  a  trip  to  what  is  now  the 
great  granary  of  the  West — the  Garden  City,  "urbs  in  horto" 
where  I  have  the  honor  to  reside — a  city  not  set  on  a  hill, 
yet  it  will  never  be  hid — a  city  this  moment  holding  out 
greater  inducements  for  investments  in  real  estate  than  any 
in  this  broad  country — a  city  that  will  one  day  alone  have 
a  member  on  this  floor,  and  this  more  than  one  person  now 
alive  will  live  to  see." 


BY   HON.  JOHN   WENTWORTH.  31 

I  not  only  lived  to  see  this  prediction  verified,  in  1865,, 
but  I,  who  made  the  prediction,  was  there  myself  to  fulfil  it. 
And  the  man  who  occupied  the  same  seat  with  me  when  I 
made  it,  was  President  of  the  United  States  when  I  fulfilled 
it — Andrew  Johnson.  Chicago  has  had  her  one  Represen- 
tative in  Congress.  She  now  has  her  three. 

Upon  another  occasion,  at  the  same  session,  I  soared 
again  into  the  realms  of  prophecy,  as  to  the  future  character 
of  our  people.  It  will  be  remembered  that,  at  that  time,, 
our  State,  our  county,  our  city,  and  our  people,  were  in  the 
very  midst  of  bankruptcy.  I  have  not  time  here  to  minutely 
describe  our  terrible  situation  financially.  But  we  were 
upon  the  eve  of  sending  Commissioners  to  London,  to 
mortgage  our  canal,  to  raise  the  means  to  complete  it,  when 
the  Washington  Globe  made  a  furious  onslaught  upon  any 
such  attempt,  taking  the  ground  that  repudiation  was  dis- 
graceful enough,  but  poverty  and  misfortune  might  excuse 
that ;  but  for  Illinois  to  sell  herself  for  British  gold  was 
infamous.  The  British  Ambassador  sent  his  private  Secre- 
tary to  me,  saying  that  the  British  steamer  would  leave  New 
York  in  forty-eight  hours,  and  would  take  that  article  with 
it;  and,  unless  the  same  steamer  took  over  some  decided 
expression  with  reference  to  the  feelings  of  our  people  upon 
the  subject  of  repudiation,  our  Commissioners  might  as  well 
remain  at  home.  Although  the  youngest  member  of  our 
Illinois  delegation  (indeed,  I  was  the  youngest  member  of 
Congress),  I  sailed  in  as  follows  : 

"  Illinois  will  never  repudiate  a  mill  of  her  public  debt, 
but  will  struggle  on  as  well  as  she  can,  under  her  mountain- 
load  of  misfortunes.  We  are  poor,  but,  thank  God,  we  are 
honest.  Incorruptible,  we  suspect  no  man  with  British 
gold  coming  to  buy  us,  until  the  overt  act.  The  young  men 
of  Illinois  expect,  in  their  day,  to  see  her  out  of  debt ;  and 
they  are  all  bent  on  paying  interest,  to  some  extent  immedi- 
ately, and  that  extent  depends  much' — -very  much — on  the 
action  of  this  Congress;  and  I  may  say  the  same  of  Indiana, 
Michigan,  and  other  Western  indebted  States.  In  these 
views,  I  believe  all  my  colleagues,  and  all  our  respective 
constituents,  and  all  the  West,  concur.  We  have  a  pride  in 
having  our  State  solvent  once  more,  and  paying  every  cent 
of  her  liabilities,  without  any  legal  quibbles,  or  dishonorable 
compromises.  And  a  glorious  consummation  will  that  be  for 
us  all.  For  one,  when  it  arrives,  I  would  say,  with  the  good 


32  REMINISCENCES   OF   EARLY   CHICAGO. 

man  of  old,  "  Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in 
peace,  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation."  Sir,  I  would 
celebrate  the  day  of  such  an  event  like  a  jubilee.  Ay,  sir, 
next  after  the  birthday  of  our  Savior  and  the  day  on  which 
American  independence  was  declared.  I  would  worship 
the  day  that  redeems  Illinois  from  bankruptcy  and  debt, — 
the  day  of  her  credit  restored,  and  her  honor  regained." 

The  British  gold  came.  You  know  the  result.  My  eyes 
saw  the  "salvation."  But,  unlike  old  Simeon,  I  was  not 
ready  then  to  "depart  in  peace." 

At  that  time,  the  northern  half  of  Illinois  had  but  two 
members  of  Congress,  the  Hon.  Joseph  P.  Hoge,  of  Galena, 
and  myself.  And  the  district  that  I  alone  then  represented 
now  has  nearly  half  the  members  of  this  State,  in  Congress, 
and  full  half  its  population,  and  more  than  half  its  wealth. 

We  finally  agreed  upon  all  the  provisions  of  a  City 
Charter,  and  the  Board  of  Town  Trustees  sent  a  messenger 
by  the  stage  coach  with  it  to  Vandalia,  about  75  miles 
below  Springfield,  where  our  legislature  was  in  session.  It 
was  soon  enacted  into  a  law,  and  we  held  an  election  under 
its  provisions  May  2d,  1837.*  Thus  our  infant's  time  had 
come.  We  took  it  from  its  cradle,  and  placed  it  in  the 
arms  of  William  B.  Ogden,  our  first  Mayor,  and  earth's 
remotest  bounds  have  contributed  to  its  wealth,  and  won- 
dered at  its  growth.  [See  Supplement.] 

*  For  Names  of  Voters,  see  FERGUS'  Directory  for  1839. 


SUPPLEMENTAL  NOTES. 


SEPTEMBER  IST,  1876. 

THE  FERGUS  PRINTING  COMPANY  published  my  second 
lecture,  delivered  Sunday  afternoon,  May  7th,  1876,  as  No. 
Seven  of  their  series  of  Historical  Pamphlets,  entitled 
"  Early  Chicago."  This  led  to  a  demand  for  the  repub- 
lication  of  my  first  lecture,  delivered  Sunday  afternoon, 
April  nth,  1875. 

Since  the  publication  of  the  second  lecture,  I  have  been 
furnished  with  additional  documents,  which  I  publish  for 
the  benefit  of  the  future  historian  of  Chicago.  If  we  except 
the  Indians,  half-br6eds,  the  Canadian-French  fur  traders, 
discharged  soldiers,  and  officers  of  the  Garrison,  Chicago, 
prior  to  the  organization  of  Cook  County,  may  properly 
have  been  called  a  Virginia  Settlement.  The  Supplemental 
Notes  to  the  second  lecture  should  be  read  before  these 
notes  can  be  appreciated. 


VIRGINIANS. 

There  were  Jonas  Clybourn  and  his  two  sons — Archi- 
bald and  Henley;  John  K.  Clarke;  David  McKee,  now 
living  near  Aurora,  111. ;  Rev.  Jesse  Walker;  Benjamin  Hall, 
now  living  at  Wheaton,  111.;  David  Hall;  Samuel  Miller; 
John  Miller;  Jacob  Miller;  Archibald  Caldwell,  now  living 
at  Kershena,  Shawanaw  Co.,  Wis. ;  and  perhaps  others,  all 
from  Virginia. 

From  Benjamin  Hall,  now  living  at  Wheaton,  DuPage 
Co.,  Ill,  the  following  facts,  touching  Chicago's  early  Vir- 
ginia settlers,  have  been  gathered  : 


34 


SUPPLEMENTAL. 


4  He  was  born  in  Pearisburgh,  Giles  Co.,  Virginia,  son  of 

4  Charles  and  grandson  of  David  Hall;  left  there  in  1831; 

stopped  in  Michigan  until  the  spring  of  1832,  when  he  came 
to  Chicago  and  engaged  in  the  tanning  and  currying  busi- 
ness with  John  and  Samuel  Miller,  who  had  come  from  Vir- 
ginia before,  him.  He  sought  protection  with  the  other 
settlers  in  the  Fort,  after  the  news  of  Black  Hawk's  depre- 
dations, until  Gen.  Scott  arrived  with  the  troops.  He  was 
a  resident  of  Chicago  until  the  autumn  of  1834.  The 
father  of  John  and  Samuel  Miller  left  Pearisburgh  at  a 
early  day,  and  settled  in  Ohio.  Their  cousin,  Jacob  Mi 
who  was  also  a  cousin  of  Mr.  Hall,  left  Virginia  with  him, 
in  1831.  He  went  to  California  and  died;  but  his  family 
is  residing  in  Lake  Co.,  IlU^Heniarjjiecl  a  widow  J^ww^ 
in  Virginia,  wkh^wo  chjUro^^t^^Iarmon  ttanirt  now 

living  inyLak^^^aJSSMt  leT miku  nut  "inf  Waukegan ;  and 

Aramosa^KcuTtg^Avnb  married  George  N.  Powell,  who  kept 
hotel,  at  Holstein,  Cook  Co.,  about  1836,  and  now  lives 
^•tofiw  with  her  second  husband,  7? Stfc&r\fi^.  •"•g^^p^g^ 
There  was  a  Thomas  Clybourn,  who  marriedaaaughter 
of  William  Kinzie,  who  came  to  Chicago  with  Jacob  Miller,, 
but  he  left  when  the  Black  Hawk  war  broke  out.  Benja- 
min Hall  married  (i)  Sarah  Bane,  of  Montgomery  Co.,  Va., 
and  his  oldest  son,  Edward  B.  Hall,  was  born  at  Chicago', 
August  20,  1832;  and  he  married  (2)  the  widow  of  the  late 
Stephen  Brown,  and  sister  of  Judge  John  D.  Caton.  Archi- 
bald Clybourn's  father  was  cousin  to  Mr.  Hall's  father. 
Archibald  Caldwell,  the  tavern-keeper,  had  left  Chicago  be- 
fore Mr.  Hall  came  here.  Caldwell  had  brothers,  but  none 
of  them  came  to  Chicago.  David  Hall,  cousin  to  Benja^ 
min  Hall,  and  half-brother  to  James  Kinzie,  was  in  Chicago 
several  years  before  Benjamin,  and  was  clerk  for  the  Ameri- 
can Fur  Company  under  Col.  John  B.  Beaubien  some  time. 
He  died  at  Elkhart,  Ind.,  and  his  son,  J.  R.  Hall,  now  lives 
at  Howard  City,  Kanzas. 

There  were  taken  by  the  Indians,  about  the  time  of  the 
American  Revolution,  from  the  vicinity  of  Pearisburgh, 
Giles  Co.,  Va.,  two  girls,  aged  about  8  and  10  years,  named 
Margaret  and  Elizabeth  McKinzie.  Their  relatives  were 
all  murdered,  except  their  father,  who  had  heard  nothing 
of  his  daughters  until  near  25  years  afterwards,  when  they 
were  found  at  or  near  Detroit.  Margaret,  the  eldest,  was 
then  the  wife  of  John  Kinzie,  and  had  William  Kinzie;, 


SUPPLEMENTAL.  35 

James  Kinzie,  of  Chicago;  and  Elizabeth  Kinzie,  married 
Sam'l  Miller.  After  separating  from  Mr.  Kinzie,  she  married 
Benjamin  Hall,  of  Giles  Co.,  Va.,  son  of  David,  and  uncle 
of  Benjamin,  of  Wheaton,  111. ;  and  had  David  Hall  and 
Sarah  Hall. 

Elizabeth  McKenzie,  the  youngest,  married  'a  Scotchman 
by  the  name  of  Clarke,  and  had  John  K.  Clarke,  and  Eliz- 
abeth Clarke,  who  married  William  Ahert,  and  settled  at 
Laporte,  Ind.  After  separating  from  Mr.  Clarke,  she  mar- 
ried Jonas  Clybourn,  of  Giles  Co.,  Va.,  and  had  Archibald 
Clybourn  and  Henley  Clybourn.  Jonas  Clybourn  died  at 
Westville,  Ind.,  July  24,  1842.  His  son  Archibald,  born 
in  Giles  Co.,  Va.,  August  28,  1802,  died  at  Chicago,  Aug. 
23,  1872. 

It  was  about  1800,  when  these  two  ladies  were  found  by 
their  father,  who  induced  them  to  return  to  Virginia  with 
him,  and  take  their  children  with  them.  And,  as  all  our 
Virginia  settlers  were  in  someway  related,  except  thejGov: 
eminent'  blacksmith,  David  McKee,  it  is  probable  that  tm's 
Virginia  settlement  owes  its  origin  to  the  fact,  that  James 
Kinzie  and  Elizabeth  Kinzie  came  here  to  see  their  father, 
who  performed  the  marriage  ceremony,  as  Justice  of  the 
Peace  for  Peoria  County,  between  Elizabeth  Kinzie  and 
Samuel  Miller,  July  29,  1826.  She  died  in  1832,  leaving 
children,  whom  her  husband  took  to  his  father,  at  Laporte, 
Ind. ;  and  he  married  a  second  wife,  and  died  at  Michigan 
City.  John  Miller,  his  brother,  died  at  Galesburg,  Illinois, 
leaving  children. 

William  Kinzie,  the  oldest  child  of  John  and  Margaret 
(McKenzie)  Kinzie,  married  in  Giles  Co.,  Va.,  and  moved 
to  Elkhart,  Ind. ;  lived  upon  land  belonging  to  his  half- 
brother,  David  Hall,  and  died  there,  leaving  descendants. 

When  James  Kinzie  and  John  K.  Clarke  arrived  at 
maturity,  they  left  Virginia  in  search  of  their  fathers,  and, 
after  a  short  absence,  they  returned  to  Virginia.  When  they 
came  back,  Clarke's  mother,  who  had  married  Jonas  Cly- 
bourn, came  with  her  husband  and  family ;  and,  also, 
James  Kinzie's  sister,  Elizabeth,  who  married  Samuel 
Miller. 

James  Kinzie's  mother  never  saw  her  first  husband  after 
separation,  as  she  and  her  second  husband,  Benjamin  Hall, 
remained  in  Virginia. 


•' 


36  SUPPLEMENTAL. 


NEW  ENGLANDERS. 

The  earliest  New  Englander  here,  who  has  descendants 
now  living,  was  Stephen  J.  Scott,  a  voter  of  1830,  who 
arrived  at  Chicago,  August  26,  1826,  in  the  schooner  Shel- 
don, Capt.  Sherwood.  His  wife  was  Hadassah  Trask,  and 
they  came  from  Connecticut.  He  died  on  board  a  ship, 
on  his  way  from  California,  Sept.,  1852,  and  was  buried  on 
the  Peninsula.  His  wife  died  at  Naperville,  III.  Sept., 
1859.  He  lived  at  Gross  Point,  now  Evanston,  111.,  at  first. 
At  the  time  of  the  election  of  John  B.  Beaubien  to  the 
office  of  Colonel,  at  the  tavern  of  Barney  H.  Lawton,  at 
what  is  now  Riverside,  on  the  DesPlaines  River,  it  was 
kept  by  Stephen  J.  Scott. 

Besides  one  dying  young,  they  had  five  children : 

Wealthy  Scott  married,  January  23,  1827,  David  McKee. 
They  had  a  son,  Stephen  J.  Scott  McKee,  born  September 
1 8,  1830. 

Permelia  Scott  married,  July  21,  1829,  John  K.  Clarke, 
and  lives,  a  widow,  at  Deerfield,  Take  Co.,  111.  She  had 
Hadassah  Clarke,  married  Walter  Milieu. 

Deborah  Scott  married  (i),  in  Maryland,  Munson  Wat- 
kins,  and  (2)  July  21,  1829,  Joseph  Bauskey.  No  descend- 
ants living. 

Willis  Scott  married  (i),  November,  1830,  Lovisa  B. 
Caldwell,  who  came  from  Virginia.  He  married  (2)  Sarah 
Barney,  and  had  Alice  Lovisa,  married  to  Arthur  Warrington. 
Mr.  Scott  lives  in  Chicago. 

Williard  Scott  married,  July  21,  1829,  Caroline  Hawley: 
both,  with  their  descendants,  now  living  at  Naperville,  111. 
They  had,  besides  two  who  died  young, 

(1)  Thaddeus,    born   August    7,    1830,  and  died   1866, 
leaving  William  H.,  born  December  3,  1858. 

(2)  Williard,  Jr.,  born  October  9,  1835. 

(3)  Alvin,  born  May  28,  1838. 

The  next  New  Englander  who  voted  here,  prior  to  the 
organization  of  Cook  Co.,  who  left  descendants,  was  our 
first  lawyer,  Russell  E.  Heacock,  born  at  Litchfield,  Conn., 
in  1781.  He  reached  here,  from  Buffalo,  New  York,  in  a 
sail  vessel,  July  4,  1827,  and  has  left  numerous  descendants. 


"•"*>-  cr"  ir  tf  «~i  -»  •  — 

REV.  JESSE  WALKER. 

It  is  claimed  that  Rev.  Jesse  Walker,  who  voted  here  in 
1830,  was  the  first  white  settler  in  that  portion  of  old  Cook 
Co.  now  known  as  Will  Co.,  settling  about  1826,  at  Walker's 
Grove,  now  Plainfield.  He  was  born  in  Buckingham  Co., 
Virginia,  June  9,^1766.  He  was  a  Methodist  clergyman, 
and,  as  a  missionary,  had  charge  of  the  northern  portion  of 
the  State.  He  passed  much  of  his  later  life  in  Chicago,  and 
finally  settled  on  a  farm  near  the  old  village  of  Cazenovia, 
on  the  O'Plain  River,  in  Leyden  township,  where  he  died, 
October  4,  1835.  His  remains  were  taken  to  Plainfield. 
One  of  his  daughters  married  her  cousin,  the  late  Hon. 
James  Walker,  of  Plainfield,  and  another  the  late  David 
Everett,  near  the  old  village  of  Cazenovia,  in  Leyden  town- 
ship, in  this  county,  on  the  O'Plain  River.  Rev.  Jesse 
Walker  had  a  brother,  David,  who  was  the  father  of  a  large 
family,  at  Ottawa,  111. ;  and  had  another  brother,  who  died 
in  Tennessee,  leaving  sons  Alfred,  John,  and  James.  The 
latter  was  the  Capt.  James  Walker,  of  Plainfield,  who  mar- 
ried the  daughter  of  Rev.  Jesse. 


OUILMETTE,  NOW  WILMETTE. 

Antoine  Ouilmette,  who  was  taxed  here  in  1825,  and  was 
here  at  the  time  of  the  massacre  of  1812,  was  a  Frenchman ; 
but  his  wife  was  a  Pottawatomie, — some  say  half  French. 
He  lived  upon  his  reservation,  where  now  is  the  village 
named  for  him,  on  the  Milwaukee  Railroad,  a  few  miles 
above  Evanston,  in  this  County.  He  moved  to  Council 
Bluffs,  Iowa,  where  he  and  his  wife  died.  He  had  an 
adopted  daughter,  Arkash  Sambli,  who  married,  August  3, 
1830,  John  Mann,  who,  in  early  times,  kept  a  ferry  at 
Calumet.  His  daughter  Elizabeth  married,  May  n,  1830, 
Michael  Welch  (Chicago's  first  Irishman),  and  had  Mary 
Ann  Welch;  and,  after  his  death,  she  married  Lucius  R. 
Darling,  now  living  at  Silver  Lake,  Shawn ee  Co.,  Kansas,  to 
which  place  also  went  Ouilmette's  other  children,  nearly 
all  now  living,  viz. :  Mitchell  (died  childless),  Lewis,  Josette 
(married  John  Deroshee,  and  mentioned  by  Mrs.  Kinzie, 
in  her  "  Waubun  "),  Francis,  Sophia,  and  Joseph. 


38  SUPPLEMENTAL. 


BILLY  CALDWELL  AND  SHABONEE. 

William  Hickling,  of  this  City,  has  exhibited  to  me  the 
original  of  the  following  document,  proving  that  Billy  Cald- 
well,  our  Justice  of  the  Peace  in  1826,  was  an  officer  in  the 
British  service,  after  the  treaty  of  peace  ;  and  that  he  styled 
himself  Captain  of  the  Indian  Department,  in  1816,  at 
Amherstburg,  [Fort  Maiden.]  Mr.  Hickling  resided  in 
Chicago,  before  its  incorporation,  but  resided  many  years 
thereafter  at  Ottawa,  and  was  a  partner  of  George  E.  Wal- 
Icer,  nephew  of  Rev.  Jesse.  Whilst  at  Ottawa,  the  Indian 
Chief,  Shabonee,  often  visited  him  and  remained  with  him 
overnight.  Not  long  before  his  death,  he  gave  him  the 
document,  asserting  that  he  had  always  worn  it  upon  his 
person.  The  manuscript  proves  that  Caldwell  was  a  man 
of  education,  as  we  all  knew  he  was  of  intelligence.  He 
was  educated  by  the  Jesuits,  at  Detroit,  and,  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  he  was  Head  Chief  of  the  combined  nation  of 
Pottawatomies,  Ottawas,  and  Chippewas.  He  married  a 
sister  of  the  Pottawatomie  Chief,  Yellow  Head,  and  had  an 
only  child,  —  a  swj,  —  who  died  young.  On  the  authority  of 
Shabonee,  Mr.  Hickling  denies  the  commonly  received  idea, 
that  Caldwell  was  a  son  of  Tecumseh's  sister.  He  confirms 
the  report  that  he  was  the  son  of  an  Irish  officer  in  the 
British  service,  but  he  insists  that  his  mother  was  a  Potta- 
watomie, and  hence  he  became  Chief  of  the  Pottawatomies. 
Tecumseh  was  a  Shawnee,  and,  he  contends,  had  but  one 
sister,  Tecumapeance,  older  than  himself,  whose  husband, 
Wasegoboah,  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  the  Thames.  She 
survived  him  some  time,  but  died  in  Ohio. 

Shabonee  (or  Chamblee,  in  French)  was  an  Ottawa 
Indian,  and  a  chief,  born  on  the  Ohio  River.  The  certifi- 
cate was  undoubtably  given  him  to  assist  him  with  the 
British  Government.  At  the  commencement  of  the  battle 
of  the  Thames,  or  of  Moravian  Town  (as  Caldwell  calls  it), 
the  Indian  Chiefs  Tecumseh  (Shawnee)  (spelled  Tecumthe 
by  many),  Caldwell  (Pottawatomie),  Shabonee  (Ottawa), 
and  Black  Hawk  (Sac),  were,  as  Mr.  Hickling  learned  from 
Shabonee,  sitting  upon  a  log,  in  consultation. 

The  paper  on  which  this  document  was  written  was  a 
half  sheet  of  old-fashioned  English  foolscap  paper,  plainly 
watermarked  "  C.  &  S.,  1813,"  and  is  as  follows: 


SUPPLEMENTAL.  39 

"  This  is  to  certify,  that  the  bearer  of  this  name,  Cham- 
"blee,  was  a  faithful  companion  to  me,  during  the  late  war 
with  the  United  States.  The  bearer  joined  the  late  cele- 
brated warrior,  Tecumthe,  of  the  Shawnee  nation,  in  the 
year  1807,  on  the  Wabash  River,  and  remained  with  the 
above  warrior  from  the  commencement  of  the  hostilities 
with  the  United  States  until  our  defeat  at  Moravian  Town, 
on  the  Thames,  October  5,  1813.  I  also  have  been  witness 
to  his  intrepidity  and  courageous  warfare  on  many  occa- 
sions, and  he  showed  a  great  deal  of  humanity  to  those 
unfortunate  sons  of  Mars  who  fell  into  his  hands. 

AMHURSTBURG,  August  i,  1816. 

B.  CALDWELL,  CAPTAIN,  I.  D. 


FIRST   TAVERN    LICENSE   FOR   CHICAGO. 

County  Commissioners'  Court,  Peoria  Co.,  December  8, 
1829.  Present:  Francis  Thomas,  George  Sharp,  and  Isaac 
Egman. 

Ordered:  That  a  License  be  granted  to  Archibald  Cald- 
well,  to  keep  a  tavern  at  Chicago,  and  that  he  pay  a  tax  of 
eight  dollars,  and  be  allowed  the  following  rates,  and  give 
a  bond  with  security  for  one  hundred  dollars. 

Each  half-pint  of  wine,  rum,  or  brandy 25     cts. 

pint  ii       M          it  ii      37/4 

half-pint  gin 18^ 

pint  ,.    31^ 

gill  of  whisky 6^ 

half-pint    n 12/^2 

pint  i' 18^ 

breakfast,  dinner,  or  supper. 25 

night's  lodging 12^ 

Keeping  horse  over  night  on  grain  and  hay. .  25 

The  same  as  above,  24  hours 37  /^ 

Horse  feed 12^ 

Archibald  Caldwell  was  born  April  30,  1806,  in  Pearis- 
burgh,  Giles  Co.,  Va.,  which  place  he  left  May  10,  1827, 
with  his  wife,  who  was  sister  to  Benjamin  Hall,  of  Wheaton, 
DuPage  Co.,  111.,  from  whom  he  separated,  and  she  became 
the  wife  of  Cole  Weeks,  a  discharged  soldier,  who  was  a 
voter  here  in  1826.  Mr.  Caldwell  arrived  in  Chicago,  July 


40  SUPPLEMENTAL. 

i,  1827.  Willis  Scott  married  his  sister,  Lovisa  Caldwell,. 
for  his  first  wife.  She  come  to  Chicago  with  her  cousin, 
Archibald  Clybourn,  all  the  way  on  horseback,  he  having 
been  back  to  Virginia  on  a  visit,  and  she  made  her  home 
with  him  until  married.  William  Ahert,  who  married 
Elizabeth  Clark,  half-sister  to  Clybourn,  came  with  them  to 
Laporte,  Ind.,  and  settled  there.  Mr.  Caldwell,  in  1831, 
moved  to  Green  Bay,  and,  in  1834,  piloted  the  schooner 
Jefferson  from  that  place  to  Chicago,  where  he  remained 
until  1835,  and  then  returned  to  Green  Bay  again.  He 
re-married,  and  now  lives  as  Kenosha,  Shawanaw  Co.,  Wis., 
and  has  ten  chirdren  living  in  the  vicinity.  He  was  cousin 
to  Archibald  Clybourn,  his  mother  being  a  sister  to  Jonas 
Clybourn.  He  writes  that  he  and  James  Kinzie  built  the 
house  together,  and  he  sold  his  interest  to  Kinzie,  after 
living  in  it  about  one  year.  Whilst  in  Virginia,  and  before 
coming  to  Chicago,  he  only  knew  Jonas  Clybourn  and 
family,  James  Kinzie,  and  John  K.  Clarke,  of  those  who 
settled  in  Chicago.  The  tavern  was  a  double  log-house, 
on  the  west  side  of  the  North  Branch,  a  few  rods  up  from 
the  main  branch.  He  had  a  sign,  with  a  wolf  painted  upon 
it,  but  it  had  no  name.  The  nearest  house  to  his  was 
Alexander  Robinson's  [Ghe-che-pin-gua's];  and,  besides 
this,  James  Kinzie's  store  was  the  only  building  at  the 
forks  of  the  river  on  the  West  Side  at  that  time.  He  claims 
that  his  father  came  from  South  Carolina,  and  was  maternal 
cousin  to  the  late  Hon.  John  Caldwell  Calhoun,  and  that 
the  recent  Senator  Caldwell,  of  Kansas,  was  of  the  same 
family.  He  was  an  Indian  trader  for  many  years,  but  he 
is  now  a  farmer.  Mr.  Caldwell  remembers  Dr.  Alexander 
Wolcott  and  Samuel  Miller  as  living  on  the  North  Side. 

On  the  South  Side,  were  Col.  John  Beaubien  and  Russell 
E.  Heacock.  In  1828,  some  soldiers  came  up  from  St. 
Louis  and  occupied  the  Fort. 

On  the  West  Side,  about  3  miles  up  the  South  Branch, 
were  living  David  Laughton,  Barney  H.  Laughton,  and 
Cole  Weeks. 

On  the  West  Side,  about  3  miles  up  the  North  Branch, 
were  living  Jonas  Clybourn,  Archibald  Clybourn,  and  John 
K.  Clarke.  ' 


SUPPLEMENTAL.  41 

OTHER  TAVERNS  IN  CHICAGO  AND  VICINITY. 

June  8,  1830,  Alexander  Robinson  [Che-che-pin-gua] 
and  Mark  Beaubien  were  licensed  to  keep  tavern,  upon 
same  conditions  as  Archibald  Caldwell.  Beaubien's  was  at 
the  Sauganash  Hotel,  corner  of  Lake  and  Market  Streets. 
Robinson's  tavern  was  on  the  West  Side,  near  Caldwell's. 
Samuel  Miller  afterwards  had  a  tavern  on  north  side  of 
river,  and  east  side  of  North  Branch,  near  the  Forks. 

December  7,  1830,  Russell  E.  Heacock  was  licensed  to 
keep  tavern  at  his  house,  about  five  miles  from  Chicago,  at 
the  same  rate  as  the  others.  He  was  our  first  lawyer.  He 
died  and  was  buried  at  his  homestead,  about  one  mile  below 
the  Summit,  on  the  Archer  Road,  in  1849,  leaving  several 
children.  His  tavern  was  up  the  South  Branch,  at  a  place 
then  known  as  Heacock's  Point.  He  was  Justice  of  the 
Peace,  in  1833.  His  tavern  was  on  South  Side,  on  South 
Branch  of  Chicago  River,  near  the  Rolling  Mills,  at  a  place 
better  known,  in  those  days,  as  Hardscrabble. 


JUSTICES  OF  THE  PEACE  UNDER  FULTON  CO. 

Amherst  C.  Ransom,*  June  17,  1823. 
John  Kinzie,  December  2,  1823. 

*  This  is  the  first  Collector  for  Chicago,  alluded  to  in  my  second 
lecture  as  Rousser.  He  was  taxed  as  of  Peoria,  in  1825.  He  is  said 
to  have  been  a  banker  in  Ohio,  before  he  came  to  Illinois,  and  is  re- 
ported to  have  gone  from  Peoria  to  Gratiot's  Grove,  Wis. ,  then  to  the 
lead  regions,  near  Galena,  thence  to  Chicago,  and  thence  to  Arkansas, 
where  he  died.  He  is  said  to  have  had  brothers-in-law,  Elisha  or 
Josiah  Fish  or  Fisk  and  Edmund  Weed,  taxed  in  Peoria  Co.,  in  1825. 
Weed  afterwards  lived  at  Racine,  Wis. 


JUSTICES  OF  THE  PEACE  UNDER  PEORIA  CO. 

Billy  Caldwell,  [Sauganash],  April  18,  1826. 
James  Walker,  [lived  at  Plainfield],  April  18,  1826. 
Alexander  Wolcott,  [Indian  Agent],  December  26,  1827. 
John  B.  Beaubien,  [General],  December  26,  1827. 
John  S.  C.  Hogan,  [Post-Master],  October  9,  1830. 
Stephen  Forbes,  [First  Sheriff],  December  13,  1830. 


42  SUPPLEMENTAL. 

FIXING   THE   PLACE   OF  CHICAGO    ELECTION. 

FIRST    CONSTABLE. 

Peoria  County  Court,  September  6,  1825. 

Ordered :  That  the  first  precinct  contain  all  that  part 
•of  the  County  east  of  the  mouth  of  the  DuPage  River, 
where  it  empties  its  waters  into  the  Aux  Plaines  River,  and 
that  the  elections  be  held  at  the  Agency  House,  or  Cob- 
Aveb's  Hall.  [Mrs.  Kinzie,  in  her  "  Waubun,"  speaks  of 
"Cobweb  Castle"  as  a  nick-name  for  the  Indian  Agency 
House,  southwest  corner  of  Wolcott  (now  State)  and  North 
Water  Streets,  on  North  Side.] 

At  the  same  time,  Ordered: 

That  Archibald  Clybourn  be  appointed  Constable 
in  and  for  the  County  of  Peoria,  and  that  the  Clerk  of  this 
County  take  his  official  bond. 


CHICAGO'S  VALUATION  IN  1823. 
Fulton  County  Court,  June  3,  1823. 

Ordered:  That  the  Assessor  levy  a  tax  on  all  personal 
property  (household  furniture  excepted),  and  on  all  town 
lots,  of  50  cents  upon  the  $100. 
June  7,  1825. 

Ordered:  That  there  be  paid  out  of  the  County 
Treasury,  to  Abner  Eads,  the  sum  of  $11.42,  in  State  paper, 
being  the  amount  deducted  from  his  account,  for  tax  col- 
lected at  Chicago. 

This  shows  that  the  valuation  at  Chicago,  in  1823,  was 
$2284.  This  probably  explains  the  order  of  April  27,  1824: 
"That  Abner  Eads  be  relieved  from  paying  the  money  tax 
collected  at  Chicago  by  Ransom"  [Amherst  C.  Ransom]. 


CHICAGO  BILLS  AUDITED  AT  PEORIA. 
June  1830. — Archibald  Caldwell,  $5.50  for  ironing  a 
turnpike  scraper.  This  is  the  first  official  account  of  our 
road  improvements.  Dec.  7,  1830. — Henley  Clybourn,  $16, 
for  one  day's  services  as  Clerk'  of  Election,  and  bringing  the 
returns  from  Chicago.  He  was  brother  to  Archibald 
Clybourn. 

FIRST  TRUSTEES  OF  THE  SCHOOL  SECTION. 
Dec.  8,  1829,  Archibald  Clybourn,  Samuel  Millar,  and  John  B.  Beau- 
.bien  were  appointed  Trustees  Sec.  16,  T.  38  N.,  Range  14,  E.  3d  P.M. 


SUPPLEMENTAL.  43 

NUMBER  OF  VOTES  AT  THE  FIRST  ELECTION  AFTER  THE 
ORGANIZATION  OF  COOK  COUNTY,  HELD  AUGUST,  1832. 

This  was  the  year  of  the  Black  Hawk  war,  and  also  the 
year  that  the  cholera  was  first  in  Chicago. 

FOR  REPRESENTATIVE  IN  CONGRESS. 

Joseph  Duncan  (of  Jacksonville) 94 

Jonathan  H.  Pugh M      19 

Archibald  Clybourn i — 1 14 

FOR  STATE  SENATOR. 

James  M.  Strode  (of  Galena) 81 

James  W.  Stevensen  (of  Galena) 26 

J.  M.  Gay 4 — 1 1 1 

FOR  REPRESENTATIVE. 
Benjamin  Mills  (of  Galena) 1 10 — i  jo 

(Ly  +     ((jifitAA&^T^R  SHERIFF. 

StepYienJForbes .  jy. 106 

James  ifinzie 2 — 108 

FOR  CORONER. 
Elijah  Wentworth,  Jr 104 — 104 


VOTERS  AUGUST  4,  1834. 

This  shows  an  increase  of  over  400  voters  in  two  years. 
FOR  GOVERNOR. 

William  Kinney  (of  Belleville) -  -  201 

Robert  K.  McLaughlin  (of  Vandalia) i  o 

Joseph  Duncan  (of  Jacksonville) 309 

James  Adams  (of  Springfield) 8 — 528 

FOR  LIEUT. -GOVERNOR. 
James  Evans —    190 

Alexander  M.  Jenkins 190 

William  B.  Archer  (one  of  our  first  Canal 
Commissioners,    and   for   whom    Archer 

Avenue  was  named) —   105 

L.  M.  Thompkins 1—486 

At  this  time,  Cook  County  embraced  what  is  now  Will, 
DuPage,  McHenry,  and  Lake  Counties. 


44  SUPPLEMENTAL. 

FIRST   FERRY. 

June  2,  1829. 

Ordered:  That  Archibald  Clybourn  and  Samuel 
Miller  be  authorized  to  keep  a  ferry  across  the  Chicago 
River,  at  the  lower  forks,  near  Wolf's  Point,  crossing  the 
river  below  the  Northeast  Branch,  and  to  land  on  either 
side  of  both  branches,  to  suit  the  convenience  of  persons 
wishing  to  cross.  And  that  said  Clybourn  and  Miller  pay 
a  tax  of  two  dollars,  and  execute  a  bond  with  security  for 
one  hundred  dollars.  The  rates  for  ferriage  to  be  one-half 
the  sum  that  John  L.  Bogardus  gets  at  his  ferry,  at  Peoria. 

Ordered:  That  the  following  rates  be,  and  they  are 
hereby  allowed  to  be  charged  and  received  by  the  different 
ferries,  by  their  respective  owners,  in  this  County,  to  wit : 

For  each  foot  passenger 6% cts. 

n       man  and  horse 12^  M 

it       Dearborn  sulkey  chair,  with  springs  50  n 

ii       one-horse  wagon 25  ir 

it       four-wheeled  carriage,  drawn  by  two 

oxen  or  horses 37^  " 

ii       cart  with  two  oxen 37  /^  " 

M       head  of  neat  cattle  or  mules 10  n 

ii       hog,  sheep,  or  goat 3  n 

ii       hundredweight  of  goods,  wares,  and 
merchandize,  each  bushel  of  grain 

or  other  article  sold  by  the  bushel     6^  n 
And  all  other  articles  in  equal  and  just  proportion. 


FIRST  FERRY  AT  CALUMET,  NOW  SOUTH  CHICAGO. 
County  Commissioners'  Court  of  Peoria  Co.,  June  Term, 
1830. 

Ordered:  That  William  See  [Rev.]  be  allowed  to 
keep  a  ferry  across  the  "  Callimink  "  [now  South  Chicago], 
at  the  head  of  Lake  Michigan,  pay  a  tax  of  two  dollars,  and 
charge  the  following  rates  : 

Each  foot  passenger . $     12}^ 

n     man  and  horse 25 

ii     wagon  or  cart  drawn  by  two  horses  or 

oxen 75 

n      four-horse  wagon r  oo 

M      one-horse  carriage  or  wagon 37/4 

Passed  on  7th  day  of  June,  1830. 


SUPPLEMENTAL.  45 

\ 

This  Rev.  Wm.  See  was  a  Methodist  clergyman,  and,  according  to 
the  Peoria  records,  the  first  clergyman  of  any  kind  to  perform  the  mar- 
riage ceremony  at  Chicago.  He  removed  to  Racine,  Wis.,  where  he 
died.  Our  James  Kinzie,  who  also  died  there,  married  a  daughter  of 
his  for  his  first  wife.  Mrs.  Kinzie  speaks  of  Mr.  See,  in  her  "  Wau- 
bun."  James  Kinzie's  second  wife  was  Virginia,  daughter  of  Isaiah 
Hale,  of  Virginia. 

WAS  CHICAGO  EVER  A  PORTION  OF  VERMILLION  CO.? 

Erroneous  statements,  like  the  following,  have  found  their 
way  not  only  into  newspapers,  but  also  into  books: 

"The  property  of  Chicago  was  taxed,  in  1827,  by  the 
County  of  Vermillion,  in  this  State,  in  whose  limits  it  then 
stood,  at  a  trifle  above  $3,  and  Sheriff  Reed  paid  it  from  his 
own  pocket,  rather  than  make  the  trip  from  Danville  to 
collect  it." 

Now,  the  County  of  Vermillion  was  created  by  act  of  the 
Legislature,  January  18,  1826.  Sec.  i  of  the  act  denned 
the  boundaries  as  follows:  "Beginning  on  the  State  line 
between  Illinois  and  Indiana,  at  the  northeast  corner  of 
Edgar  County,  thence  west  with  the  line  dividing  townships 
number  sixteen  and  seventeen,  to  the  southwest  comer  of 
township  seventeen,  north  of  range  ten,  east  of  the  third 
principal  meridian,  thence  north  to  the  northwest  corner 
of  township  twenty-two  north,  thence  east  to  the  State  line, 
thence  south  with  the  State  line  to  the  place  of  beginning." 

Sec.  7  of  the  same  act  provides  further,  as  follows:  "That 
all  that  tract  of  country  lying  east  of  range  six,  east  of  the 
third  principal  meridian,  west  and  north  of  Vermillion  Co., 
as  far  north  as  the  Illinois  and  Kankakee  Rivers,  be,  and  the 
same  is  hereby  attached  to  said  Vermillion  Co.,  for  all  county 
purposes." 

At  the  first  election  in  Vermillion  Co.,  held  March  6, 
1826,  William  Reed  had  57  votes,  and  Moses  B.  Vance 
23  votes,  for  Sheriff.  This  Sheriff  Reed  may  have  supposed 
that  he  had  jurisdiction  in  Cook  Co.,  but  may  never  have 
attempted  to  exercise  it,  for  the  reason  stated. 

The  act  forming  Peoria  Co.  was  approved  January  13, 
1825,  and  Chicago  was  assessed  for  that  year  in  Peoria  Co. 
No  other  assessment  for  Chicago,  in  Peoria  Co.  nor  in 
Vermillion  Co.,  can  be  found;  but  all  the  marriage  licenses 
were  taken  out  at  Peoria,  our  Judges  of  Election  appointed 
there,  and  election  returns  made  there,  until  the  organiza- 
tion of  Cook  Co.;  and  the  records  of  Vermillion  Co.  show 
no  attempt  at  jurisdiction  over  Cook  Co. 


46  SUPPLEMENTAL. 

OTHER  MARRIAGES  RECORDED  IN  PEORIA. 

By  John  Kinzie,  Jan.  2,  1827,  Peter  LeClair  [Peresh  Leclerc?]  to 
Margaretta  Peehequetarouri  or  (the  writing  may  be)  Perheguetaroui. 

By  Jesse  Walker,  a  regular  minister  of  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
May  3,  1828,  Vetal  Vermit,  at  the  house  of  David  Walker,  to  Cornelia 
Walker.  This  marriage  was  at  Ottawa,  111.,  and  the  parties  never 
lived  in  Chicago.  Vermit  was  a  ferryman  at  Ottawa,  and  his  widow 
now  lives  at  Thornton,  Cook  Co.,  111. 

By  John  B.  Beaubien,  Nov.  5,  1828,  Joseph  Pothier  and  Victoria 
Maranda. 

By  Isaac  Scarret,  a  missionary  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
July  21,  1829,  John  K.  Clarke  to  Permelia,  daughter  of  Stephen  J. 
Scott,  at  the  same  time  and  place  with  her  brother  Williard  Scott. 

By  Isaac  Scarrett,  missionary  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  at 
Holderman's  Grove  [now  Newark,  Kendall  Co.],  July  21,  1829,  Wil- 
liard Scott  to  Caroline,  daughter  of  Pierce  Hawley.  Mr.  Hawley  was. 
originally  from  Vermont.  He  and  his  brother,  Aaron,  were  taxed  in 
Fox  River  [Precinct  No.  2,  of  Peoria  Co.],  in  1825. 

By  Rev.  Wm.  See,  Nov.  i,  1830,  Willis  Scott  and  Lovisa  B.  Cald- 
well.  She  was  sister  to  Archibald  Caldwell,  our  first  tavern-keeper ;. 
an  emigrant  from  Virginia. 


GEN.   SCOTT  REPORTS  HIS  ARRIVAL  AT  CHICAGO 

TO  GOV.   REYNOLDS. 

(From  the  Louisville  Advertiser,  of  July  2j,  1832.) 
The  following  is  the  latest  o'fficial  intelligence  from  Chicago.     We  are 

indebted  to  a  commercial  friend  for  it : 

HEADQUARTERS  N.  W.  ARMY,  Chicago,  July  75,  1832. 

SIR  : — To  prevent  or  correct  the  exaggerations  of  rumor  in  respect 
to  the  existence  of  cholera  at  this  place,  I  address  myself  to  your  Ex- 
cellency. Four  steamers  were  engaged  at  Buffalo,  to  transport  United- 
States  troops  and  supplies  to  Chicago.  In  the  headmost  of  these  boats, 
the  Sheldon  Thompson,  I,  with  my  Staff  and  four  companies,  a  part  of 
Col.  Eustis'  command,  arrived  here  on  the  night  of  the  loth  inst.  On 
the  8th,  all  on  board  were  in  high  health  and  spirits,  but  the  next 
morning,  six  cases  of  undoubted  cholera  presented  themselves.  The 
disease  rapidly  spread  itself  for  the  next  three  days.  About  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  persons  have  been  affected.  Under  a  late  Act  of  Con- 
gress, six  companies  of  rangers  are  to  be  raised,  and  marched  to  this- 
place.  Gen.  [Henry]  Dodge,  of  Michigan,*  [Senator,]  [then  embrac- 
ing Dodgeville,  Wis.]  is  appointed  Major  of  the  battalion,  and  I  have 
seen  the  names  of  the  Captains,  but  I  do  not  know  where  to  address 
them.  I  am  afraid  that  the  report  from  this  place,  in  respect  to  cholera, 
may  seriously  retard  the  raising  of,  this  force.  I  wish,  therefore,  that 
your  Excellency  would  give  publicity  to  the  measures  I  have  adopted 
to  prevent  the  spread  of  this  disease,  and  of  my  determination  not  to- 
allow  any  junction  or  communication  between  uninfected  and  infected 
troops.  The  war  is  not  at  an  end,  and  may  not  be  brought  to  a  close 
for  some  time.  The  rangers  may  reach  the  theatre  of  operations  in 

*  Michigan  then  embraced  what  is  now  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  and  Iowa.  Major 
Dodge,  better  known  as  Gen.  Dodge,  was  afterwards  Governor  of  Wisconsin,  and 
was  U.S.  Senator.  He  was  father  of  Hon.  Augustus  C.  Dodge,  Burlington,  Iowa. 


SUPPLEMENTAL.  47 

time  to  give  the  final  blow.     As  they  approach  this  place,  I  shall  take 
care  of  their  health  and  general  wants. 

I  write  in  great  haste,  and  may  not  have  time  to  cause  my  letter  to 
be  copied.    It  will  be  put  in  some  post-office  to  be  forthwith  forwarded. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  your  Excellency's  most  obedient  servant-, 

WINFIELD  SCOTT. 

His  EXCELLENCY  Gov.  JOHN  REYNOLDS. 


WHO  BUILT  THE  FIRST  DRAWBRIDGE  AND  THE 
FIRST  VESSEL  AT  CHICAGO? 

NELSON  R.  NORTON,  of  Alden,  Freeborn  Co.,  Minnesota,  under 
date  of  August  25,  1876,  writes  as  follows: 

I  came  to  Chicago  Nov.  16,  1833.  Soon  after  I  arrived,  I  com- 
menced cutting  the  lumber  for  a  drawbridge,  on  the  land  adjoining 
Michigan  Avenue,  afterwards  owned  by  Hiram  Pearsons.  In  March, 
1834,  I  commenced  building  it,  and  I  think  it  was  completed  by  the 
first  of  June.  The  first  Steam- Boat  that  passed  through  it  was  the  old 
Michigan,  with  a  double  engine,  commanded  by  Capt.  C-Blake,  and 
owned  by  Oliver  Newberry,  of  Detroit.  *"~ 

Credit  me  with  building  the  first  vessel  at  Chicago.  I  built  the 
sloop  Clarissa,  in  the  spring  of  1835.  This  was  the  first  sail  vessel 
launched  on  the  west  side  of  Lake  Michigan,  if  not  the  first  on  the  lake. 

The  first  freight  taken  down  the  Lakes  was  in  1834,  being  a  lot  of 
hides,  from  cattle  that  had  been  slaughtered  for  the  Government  troops. 

I  was  born  at  Hampton,  Washington  Co.,  N.Y.,  on  Nov.  8,  1807. 

The  bridge  had  an  opening  of  60  feet,  with  a  double  draw.  I  think,, 
the  length  was  300  feet.  This  is  the  best  of  my  recollection.  The 
width  was  16  feet.  It  was  located  at  Dearborn  Street.  I  cannot  state 
the  cost  of  the  bridge. 

I  removed  from  Chicago  in  the  spring  of  1839.  The  militia  of 
Cook  County  was  organized  in  1834,  by  the  election  of  John  B.  Beau- 
bien  as  Colonel,  at  the  tavern  owned  by  Barney  H.  Lawton,  near 
Lyons,  on  the  DesPlaines  River  [now  Riverside;  then  kept  by  Stephen 
J.  Scott].  Respectfully  yours,  NELSON  R.  NORTON. 


PEORIA  COUNTY  ASSESSMENT  FOR  1825. 
PERSONAL  PROPERTY. 

REAL   ESTATE   WAS   NOT   TAXABLE. 

Whilst  Chicago  was  a  part  of  Peoria  Co.,  it  was  divided  into  four 
precincts  or  voting-places.  The  first  included  all  territory  north  of  the 
confluence  of  the  DuPage  and  DesPlaines  Rivers,  and  was  called  Chi- 
cago. Directly  south  of  it  was  the  second  precinct,  called  Fox  River ; 
south  of  which  was  the  third  precinct,  called  Peoria ;  embracing  all  the 
settlements  noted  in  the  following  list,  except  Chicago  and  Fox  River. 
Then  there  was  a  fourth  precinct,  embracing  all  the  territory  west  of 
the  other  three,  known  as  Fever  River,  with  a  voting-place  at  or  near 
what  is  now  Galena.  The  following  list  does  not  contain  the  names  of 
any  person  in  the  latter  precinct.  There  were'  fourteen  tax-payers  in 
Chicago,  and  six  in  Fox  River ;  which  included  the  present  sites  of 
Morris,  Ottawa,  LaSalle,  Peru,  etc.  John  Dixon,  then  Clerk  of  the 
County  Commissioners'  Court  of  Peoria  Co,,  was  born  Oct.  9,  1784,  at 
Rye,  Westchester  Co.,  N.  Y.,  died  at  Dixon,  Lee  Co.,  111.,  July  6,  1876. 


SUPPLEMENTAL. 


NAME  AND    RESIDENCE. 

A  very,  Elias  P.,  LaSalle  Prairie,         $  200  oo 

NAME  AND    RESIDENCE. 

Hamlin,  John,  Peoria,                            $  400  oo 

Alscombe,  Antoine,  Trading  House,        50  oo 

Holland,  William,  Peoria,                        800  oo 

Allen,  Archibald,  Peoria,                          150  oo 

Hy4e,  E.  &  N.,  Peoria,                            700  oo 

Beaubien,  John  B.,  Chicago,                  1000  oo 

Hawley,  Aaron,  Fox  River,                     200  oo 

Beauchamp,  Sr.,  Noah,  Peoria,              20000 

Hawley,  Pierce,  Fox  River,                     300  oo 

Beauchamp,  Jr.,  Noah,  Peoria,               100  oo 

Harlin,  Joshua,  Farm  Creek,                   150  oo 

Barker,  John,  Peoria,                                400  oo 

Harlin,  George,  LaSalle  Prairie,             150  oo 

Bourbonne,  Francis,  Trading  House,    200  oo 

Hallock,  Lewis,  LaSalle  Prairie,               50  oo 

Blanchard,  William,  Ten  Mile,                15000 

Hunter,  Jacob  M.,  Peoria,                         5000 

Bethard,  Elza,  Ten  Mile,                          275  oo 

Ish,  George,  Farm  Creek,                         250  oo 

Bratton,  Reuben,  Ten  Mile,                     135  oo 

Kinzie,  John,  Chicago,                              500  oo 

Banks,  Thomas,  Ten  Mile,                         50  oo 

Love,  Charles,  Peoria,                               150  oo 

Baresford,  Robert,  Fox  River,                  50  oo 

Love,  George,  near  Little  Detroit,         350  oo 

Brierly,  Thomas,  near  Little  Detroit,    160  oo 

Langworthy,  Augustus,  Peoria,              200  oo 

Bogardus,  John  L.,  Peoria,                      50000 

Latham,  J,,  Peoria,                                    300  oo 

Bryant,  Joseph,  Peoria,                            300  oo 

Latham,  Philip,  Peoria,                             zoc  oo 

Beabor,  Louis,  Trading  House,               700  oo 

Like,  Daniel,  Peoria,                                   50  oo 

Bourbonne,  Jr.,  Frs.,  Trading  House,   100  oo 

LaFramboise,  Joseph,  Chicago,                50  oo 

Brown,  Cornelius,  Peoria,                        150  oo 

LaFramboise,  C.,  Chicago,                       100  oo 

Barker,  Andrew,  Farm  Creek,                 100  oo 

Latta,  James,  Illinois  Prairie,                  20000 

Clybourn,  Jonas,  Chicago,                        625  oo 

Montgomery,  Hugh,  Mackinaw  Point,  200  oo 

Clarke,  John  K.,  Chicago,                        250  oo 

McNaughton,  Alex.,  Mackinaw  Point,  150  oo 

Crafts,  John,  Chicago,                             5000  oo 

Moffatt,  Alva,  Peoria,                                  60  oo 

Carroll,  Stephen,  LaSalle  Prairie,           150  oo 

Moffatt,  Aquilla,  Peoria,                             40  oo 

Cline,  George,  Illinois  Prairie,                  70  oo 

Mather,  David,  Ten  Mile,                        20000 

Cline,  John,  Illinois  Prairie,                     264  oo 

McCormick,  Levi,  Illinois  Prairie,            50  oo 

Cromwell,  Nathan,  Illinois  Prairie,        300  oo 

McKee,  David,  Chicago,                          100  oo 

Curry,  Hiram  M.,  Ten  Mile,                   22500 

McLaree,  Jesse,  Peoria,                              25  oo 

Cooper,  Abner,  near  Little  Detroit,        120  oo 

Neeley,  Henry,  Peoria,                            150  oo 

Crocker,  Austin,  Farm  Creek,                 200  oo 

Ogee,  Joseph,  Illinois  Prairie,                 200  oo 

Camlin,  Thomas,  Farm  Creek,                 300  oo 

Perkins,  Isaac,  Illinois  Prairie,                400  oo 

Clermont,  Jerry,  Chicago,                 .       100  oo 

Phillips.  John  and  William,  Ten  Mile,  400  oo 

Coutra,  Louis,  Chicago,                              50  oo 

Patterson,  John,  Prince's  Grove,               20  oo 

Countraman,  Fred,  Fox  River.                  50  oo 

Prince,  Daniel,  Prince's  Grove,               200  oo 

Dougherty,  Allen  S.  ,  Mackinaw  Point,  100  oo 

Porter,  Martin,  Peoria,                              100  oo 

Dillon,  Walter,  Mackinaw  Point,            250  oo 

Piche,  Peter,  Chicago,                               100  oo 

Dillon,  Nathan,  Mackinaw  Point,          400  oo 

Redman,  Eli,  Mackinaw  Point,                35  oo 

Dillon,  Absalom,  Mackinaw  Point,         200  oo 

Redman,  Henry,  Mackinaw  Point,          35  oo 

Dillon,  Thomas,  Mackinaw  Point,          300  oo 

Ridgeway,  John,  LaSalle  Prairie,          100  oo 

Dillon,  Jesse,  Mackinaw  Point,               727  oo 

Robinson,  Alexander,  Chicago,               200  oo 

Dillon,  John,  Mackinaw  Point,                 93  oo 

Ransom,  Amherst  C.  ,  Peoria,                  100  oo 

Davis,  William,  Mackinaw  Point,           200  oo 

Ramsay,  John  L.,  Fox  River,                 20000 

Dixon,  John,  Peoria,                                  350  oo 

Sommers,  Jt>hn,  Illinois  Prairie,              300  oo 

DuMont,  Peter,  Little  Detroit,                 50  oo 

Scott,  Peter,  Mackinaw  Point,                  50  oo 

Donahoue,  Major,  Ten  Mile,                   200  oo 

Smith,  Joseph,  Farm  Creek,                    550  oo 

Egman,  Jesse,  Illinois  Prairie,                 100  oo 

Sharp,  George,  Peoria,                              608  oo 

Eads,  William,  Peoria,                              350  oo 

Stephenson,  John,  Ten  Mile,                     40  oo 

Eads,  Abner,  Peoria,                                 800  oo 

Stout,  Ephriam,  Sr.  &  Jr.,  111.  Prairie,  500  oo 

Ellis,  Levi,  Illinois  Prairie,                        25  oo 

Walker,  Jesse,  Fox  River,                          50  oo 

Clark,  William,  Illinois  Prairie,               250  oo 

Thorp,  Jonathan,  Illinois  Prairie,           100  oo 

Field,  Gilbert,  LaSalle  Prairie,               150  oo 

Turner,  Ezekiel,  Illinois  Prairie,              150  oo 

French,  Stephen,  Farm  Creek,                 200  oo 

Van  Scoyk,  Joseph,  Peoria,                        ;fo  oo 

Fulton,  Samuel,  Peoria,                            300  oo 

Walker,  Hugh,  LaSalle  Prairie,                50  oo 

Fulton,  James,  Farm  Creek,                       12  50 

Wolcott,  Alexander,  Chicago,                 572  oo 

Fulton,  Josiah,  Farm  Creek,                    150  oo 

Wilmette,  Antoine,  Chicago,                    400  oo 

Fulton,  Seth,  Ten  Mile,                            100  oo 

Weed,  Edmond,  Ten  Mile,                      174  oo 

Fish,  Elisha,  Farm  Creek,                        2od  oo 

Wilson,  Seth,  Illinois  Prairie,                  200  oo 

Funk,  Jacob,  Farm  Creek,                        500  oo 

Wilson,  Jacob,  Ten  Mile,                          30000 

Funk,  Isaac,  Peoria,                                  200  oo 

Woodrow,  Samuel,  Illinois  Prairie,         15000 

Griffin,  John,  LaSalle  Prairie,                    50  oo 

Woodrow,  Hugh,  Illinois  Prairie,           250  oo 

Gilbert,  Levi,  Illinois  Prairie,                    25  oo 

Waters,  Isaac,  Peoria,                               TOO  oo 

Harrison,  Jesse,  Peoria,                              50  oo 

Total,         $30,455  50 

Smith,  William.  I  called  on  him  for  the  amount  of  personal  property.  He  refused  to 
render  the  same.  As  near  as  I  can  ascertain,  it  amounts  to  $150. 

I,  John  L.  Bogardus,  do  hereby  certify  that  the  above  is  the  assessment  for  the  year 
1825.  JOHN  L.  BOGARDUS,  Assessor. 

To  John  Dixon,  Esq.,  Clerk  of  County  Commissioners'  Court. 

P.S. — Amount  received  for  tavern  license,  $20. 


INDEX 

TO 

EARLY  CHICAGO:"    -First   Lecture, 

(No.  8  of  Fergus'  Historical  Series.) 
BY 

HON.    JOHN    WE  NT  WORTH,    LL.  D., 

Delivered  Sunday,  April  II,  1875. 
[This  Index  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Wentsvorth,  August,  1881.] 


A. 

Adams,  James,  43. 

Adams,  John,  12. 

Adams,  John  Q.,  5,  17. 

Ahert,  William,  35,  40. 

Allen,  Archibald,  48. 

Allouez,  Claude,  8. 

Alscomb,  E.  Antoine,  48. 

Archer,  William  B.,  43. 

AuSable,  Jean  Baptiste  Point,  14,  15. 

Avery,  Elias  P.,  48. 

B. 

Bancroft,  George,  4. 

Bane,  Sarah,  34. 

Banks,  Thomas,  48. 

Barney,  Sarah,  36. 

Baresford,  Robert,  48. 

Barker,  Andrew,  48. 

Barker,  John,  48. 

Bates,  George  C.,  24. 

Bauskey,  Joseph,  36. 

Beabor,  Louis,  48. 

Beaubien,  Alexander,  24. 

Beaubien,  John  Baptiste,  15,  24,  28, 

34,  36,  40,  41,  42,  46,  47,  48. 
Beaubien,  Mark,  21,  26,  41. 
Beauchamp,  Noah,  sr.,  48. 
Beauchamp,  Noah,  jr.,  48. 
Bethard,  Elza,  48. 
Bismark,  Prince,  6. 
Black  Hawk  (Indian  chief),   22,  25, 

26,  27,  30,  34,  38,  43. 


Blake,  Capl.  Chelsey,  47. 
Blanchard,  William,  48. 
Bogardus,  John  L.,  44,  48. 
Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  7,  9,  23. 
Bonaparte,    Louis   Napoleon,  9,    13, 

23- 

Bond,  Shadrack,  24. 
Bourbonne,  Francis,  sr.,  48. 
Bourbonne,  Francis,  jr.,  48. 
Braddock,  Gen. ,  12. 
Bratton,  Reuben,  48. 
Brierly,  Thomas,  48. 
Brown,  Cornelius,  48. 
Brown,  Henry,  4. 
Brown,  Gen.  Jacob,  22. 
Brown,  Stephen,  34. 
Bryant,  Joseph,  48. 
Bull,  John,  10. 

C. 

Caldwell,  Archibald,  33,  34,  39,  40, 

41,  42,  46. 
Caldwell,    Billy    (Sauganash,    Indian 

chief),  38,  39,  41. 
Caldwell,  Lovisa  B.,  36,  40,  46. 
Caldwell,   Alexander,  40. 
Caldwell,  Susan,  (only  child),  38. 
Calhoun,  John  C.,  40. 
Camlin,  Thomas,  48. 
Carroll,  Stephen,  48. 
Casey,  Zadoc,  28. 
Cass,  Lewis,  6,  14,  25. 
Caton,  John  Dean,  34. 


50 

Chamblee  (Shabonee,  Indian  chief), 
22,  23,  38,  39. 

Che-che-pin-qua  (Alexander  Robin- 
son, Indian  chief),  40,  41,  48. 

Clarissa  (sloop),  47. 

Clark, ,  35. 

Clark,  Elizabeth,  35,  40. 

Clark,  Gen.  George  Rogers,  7,  9,  13, 
20. 

Clark,  Hadassah,  36. 

Clark,  John  K.,  33,  35,  36,  40,  46, 
48. 

Clark,  William,  48. 

Clay,  Henry,  17. 

Clermont,  Jerry,  48. 

Cline,  George,  48. 

Cline,  John,  48. 

Clybourn,  Archibald,  25,  33,  34,  35, 
40,  42,  43,  44. 

Clybourn,  Henly,  33,  35,  42. 

Clybourn,  Jonas,  33,  35,  40,  48. 

Clybourn,  Thomas,  34. 

Coles,  Edward,  24. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  4. 

Cooper,  Abner,  48. 

Countraman,  Frederick,  48. 

Coutra,  Louis,  48. 

Crafts,  John,  48. 

Crocker,  Austin,  48. 

Cromwell,  Nathan,  48. 

Curry,  Hiram  M.,  48. 


EARLY   CHICAGO. 


•Aramosa,  34.  ( 

34-    „ 

g,  Lucius  R.,  37. 
Davis,  Jefferson,  17,  18. 
Davis,  William,  48. 
Dearborn,  Henry,  14. 
Dejoinville,  Prince,  12. 
Deroshee,  John,  37. 
DeSoto,  Fernando,  4. 
Dillon,  Absalom,  48. 
Dillon,  Jesse,  48. 
Dillon,  John,  48. 
Dillon,  Nathan,  48. 
Dillon,  Thomas,  48. 
Dillon,  Walter,  48. 
Dixon,  John,  47,  48. 
Dodge,  Henry,  46. 
Dodge,  Augustus  C.,  46. 
Donahoue,  Major,  48. 
Dougherty,  Allen  S.,  48. 


Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  30. 
DuMont,  Peter,  48. 
Duncan,  Joseph,  43. 

E. 

Eads,  Abner,  42,  48. 
Eads,  William,  48. 
Economy  (fire-engine),  3. 
Edwards,  Ninian,  15. 
Egan,  William  B.,  28,  29. 
Egman,  Isaac,  39. 
Egman,  Jesse,  48. 
Ellis,  Levi,  48. 
Eustis,  Col.  Abraham,  46. 
Evans,  James,  43. 
Everett,  David,  37. 

F. 

Fassett,  Samuel  M.,  2. 

Fergus,  Robert,  2,  32. 

F.  [Fergus],  2. 

Fergus  Printing  Company,  33 

Field,  Gilbert,  48. 

Fish,  Elisha,  41,  48. 

Fish,  Josiah,  41. 

Fisk,  Elisha.  41. 

Fisk,toiatfUi     y   v*"  V 

Forbes,^fepherf,  41-43.        ^ 


Frontenac,  Gen.  Louis  DeBuade,  10. 

Fulton,  James,  48. 

Fulton,  Josiah,  48. 

Fulton,  Samuel,  48. 

Fulton,  Seth,  48. 

Funk,  Isaac,  48. 

Funk,  Jacob,  48. 

G. 

Garibaldi,  Giuseppe,  6. 
Garrett,  Augustus,  17. 
Gay,  J.  M.,  43. 
Gilbert,  Levi,  48. 
Griffin,  John,  48. 
Griffin  (schooner),  8. 


H.       • 

Hale,  Isaiah,  45. 

Hale,  Virginia,  45. 

Hall,  Benjamin,  33,  34,  35,  39. 

Hall,  Charles,  34. 

Hall,  David,  ST.,  34,  35. 


INDEX. 


41. 


Hall,  David,  jr.,  33,  34. 
Hall,  Edward  B.,  34. 
Hall,  J.  R.,  34- 
Hallock,  Lewis,  48. 
Hamlin,  John,  48. 
Hanson,  Rev.—    —  ,  12. 
Harlin,  George,  48. 
Harlin,  Joshua, 
Harrison,  Jesse,  48. 
Harrison,  William  H.,  14,  19,  21,  22. 
Hawley,  Aaron,  46,  48. 
Hawley,  Caroline,  36,  46. 
Hawley,  Pierce,  46,  48. 
Heacock,  Russell  E.,  36,  40, 
Heald,  Nathan,  16. 
Healey,  Geo.  P.  A.  ,  2. 
Henry  Clay  (steamer),  26. 
Hennepin,  Louis,  8,  9. 
Henry,  Patrick,  12. 
Hickling,  William,  38. 
Hoge,  Joseph  P.,  16,  32. 
Hogan,  John  S.  C.,  41. 
Holland,  William,  48. 
Hubbard,  Gurdon  S.,  3,  24, 
Hull,  William,    16,21. 
Hunter,  Gen.  David,  25. 
Hunter,  Jacob  M.,  48. 
.•  Huntington,  Alonzo,  29. 
Hyde,  E.  &  N.  (firm),  48. 


25,  28. 


Ish,  George,  48. 


I. 


J- 

Jackson,  Andrew,  16,  17,  26. 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  40. 
Jenkins,  Alexander  M.,  43. 
Johnson,  Andrew,  31. 
Johnson,  Richard  M.,  22,  23. 
Joliet,  Rev.  Louis,  8. 
Joinville,  Prince  df,  12. 

K. 

Keating,  William  H.,  25. 

Kimball,  Walter,  28. 

Kinney,  William,  43. 

Kinzie,  Ellen  Marion,  24. 

Kinzie,  Elizabeth,  35. 

Kinzie,  James,  34,  35,  40,  43,  45. 

Kinzie,  John,  15,  21,  22,  24,  34,  35, 

41,  46,  48. 
Kinzie,  John  H.,  15. 
Kinzie,  Juliette  A.,  37,  42. 


Kinzie,  Maria  H.,  25. 
Kinzie,  Robert  A.,  15. 
Kinzie,  Wrillram,  34,  35. 

L. 

Lafayette,  Marquis  de,  12,  13. 

Lafromboise,  Claude,  48. 

Lafromboise,  Joseph,  15,  48. 

Lafromboise,  Josette,  15. 

Langworthy,  Augustus,  48. 

LaSalle,  Robert  C.,  8,  9. 

Latham,  J.,  48. 

Latham,  Philip,  48. 

Latta,  James,  48. 

Laughton,  Barney  H.,  28,  36,  40,  47. 

Laughton,  David,  40. 

LeClerc,  Peresh,  46. 

LeClair,  Peter,  46. 

Liberty  (fire-engine),  3. 

Like,  Daniel,  48. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  14,  26,  27. 

Long  John  (fire-engine),  3. 

Louis  XIV,  8. 

Louis  XVI,  12. 

Louis  XVII,  12. 

Love,  Charles,  48. 

Love,  George,  48. 

M. 

Madison,  James,  9. 

Mann,  John,  37. 

Maranda,  Victoria,  46. 

Marquette,  James,  6,  7,  8,  9. 

Marshall,  Humphrey,  27. 

Mather,  D%vid,  48. 

Maury,  W^.,  1 8. 

Maximillian,  Emperor,  9. 

McCormick,  Levi,  48. 

McKee,  David,  33,  35,  36,  48. 

McKee,  Stephen  J.  S.,  36. 

McKinzie,  Elizabeth,  34,  35. 

McKinzie,  Margaret,  34,  35. 

McLaree,  Jesse,  48. 

McLaughlin,  Robert  K.,  43. 

McNaughton,  Alexander,  48. 

McNeil,  John,  24. 

Michigan  (steamboat),  47. 

Millen,  Walter,  36. 

Miller,  Jacob,  33,  34. 

Miller,  John,  33,  34,  35. 

Miller,   Samuel,  33,  34,  35,  40,  41, 

42,  44. 
Mills,  Benjamin,  43. 


EARLY   CHICAGO. 


Moffatt,  Alva,  48. 
Moffatt,  Aquilla,  48, 
Montgomery,  Hugh,  48. 
Murphy,  John,  26. 

N. 

Neeley,  Henry,  48. 
Xewberry,  Oliver,  47. 
Xicollet,  Sieur  Jean,  8. 
Norton,  Nelson  R.,  47. 

O. 

Ogden,  William  B.,  3,  32. 
Ogee,  Joseph,  48. 

Ouilmette  (Wilmette),  Antoine,   24, 
37f  48. 

P. 

Pakenham,  Gen.  E.,  16. 

Patterson,  John,  48. 

Pearsons,  Hiram,  47. 

Pearson,  John,  29. 

Pee-he-que-ta-rou-ri,  Margaretta,  46, 

Perkins,  Isaac,  48. 

Perry,  Commodore  Oliver  H.,  22. 

Phillippe,  Louis,  12. 

Phillips,  John,  48. 

Phillips,  William,  48. 

Piche,  Peter,  48. 

Polk,  James  K.,  17. 

Porter,  Martin,  48. 

Pothier,  Joseph,  46. 

Powell,  George  N.,  34. 

Prince,  Daniel,  48. 

Proctor,  Gen.  Henry  A.,  21. 

Pugh,  Jonathan  H.,  43. 

Putnam's  Magazine,  12. 

. 

Ramsay,  John  L.,  48. 

Ransom  (or  Rousser),  Amherst  C., 

41,  .42,  48. 
Redman,  Eli,  48. 
Redman,  Henry,  48. 
Reed  Charles  H.,  29. 
Reed,  William,  45. 
Reynolds,  John,  46. 
Ridgeway,  John,  48. 
Robinson,    Alexander    (Che-che-pin- 

qua,  Indian  chief),  40,  41,  48. 
Rousser  (or  Ransom),  A.  C.,  48. 


S. 


Sambli,  Arkash,  37. 

Sauganash    (Billy   Caldwell,     Indian 

chief),  38,  39,  41. 
Scarrett,  JRev.  Isaac,  46. 
Scott,  Alice  Lovisa,  36. 
Scott,  Alvin,  36. 
Scott,  Deborah,  36. 
Scott,  Peter,  48. 
Scott,  Permelia,  36,  46. 
Scott,  Stephen  J.,  36,  46-47. 
Scott,  Thaddeus,  36. 
Scott,  Wealthy,  36. 
Scott,  Williard,  36-46. 
Scott,  Williard,  jr.,  36. 
Scott,  Willis,  36,  40,  46. 
Scott,  William  H.,  36. 
Scott,  Gen.  Winfield,  26,  27,  34,  46, 

47- 

See,  Rev.  William,  44,  45,  46. 
Shabonee  (Chamblee,   Indian  chief), 

22,  23,  38,  39. 
Sharp,  George,  39,  48. 
Sheldon  (schooner),  36. 
Sheldon  Thompson  (steamboat),  27, 

46. 

Sherwood,  Capt.- ,  36. 

Smith,  Joseph,  48. 
Smith,  William,  48. 
Sommers,  John,  48. 
Stevensen,  James  W.,  43. 
Stephenson,  John,  48. 
Stewart,  William,  29. 
Storey,  Wilbur  F. ,  29. 
Stout,  Ephriam,  48. 
Strode,  James  M.,  43. 
Stuart,  John  T.,  30. 

T. 

Taylor,  Edmund  D.,  25,  28. 
Tecumapeance,   sister  to  Tecumseh, 

38. 
Tecumseh  (Indian  chief),  22,  23,  25, 

38,  39- 

Thomas,  Francis,  39. 
Thompkins,  L.  M.,  43. 
Thorp,  Jonathan,  48. 
Tonti,  Henry  de,  8,  9. 
Trask,  Hadassah,  36. 
Turner,  Ezekiel,  48. 

V. 

YanBuren,  Martin,  22. 


INDEX. 


53 


Vance,  Moses,  B.,  45. 
VanScoyk,  Joseph,  48. 
Vermit,  Vital,  46. 

W. 

Walker,  Alfred,  37. 

Walker,  Capt.  A.,  27. 

Walker,  Cornelia,  46. 

Walker,  David,  37,  46. 

Walker,  George  E.,  38. 

Walker,  Hugh,  48. 

Walker,  Capt.  James,  37-41. 

Walker,  James,  37. 

Walker,  Jesse,  25,  33,  37,  38,  46,  48. 

Walker,  John,  37. 

Walk-in-the- Water   (steamboat),    24. 

Warrington,  Arthur,  36. 

Wasegoboah  (Indian  chief),  38. 

Washington,  George,  9,  12,  13. 

Waters,  Isaac,  48. 

Watkins,  Munson,  36. 

Wayne,  Anthony,  9,  13. 

Weed,  Edmond,  41,  48. 

Weeks,  Cole,  39,  40. 

Welch,  Michael,  37. 

Welch,  Mary  Ann,  37. 


Wells,  William,  19. 
Wentworth,  Elijah,  sr.,  26. 
Wentworth,  Elijah,  jr.,  43. 
Wentworth,  John,  2,  3,  17,  20. 
Whistler,  William,  24. 
Williams,  Eleazer,  n. 
Williams,  Eli  B.,  30. 
Williams,  Erastus  $.,  29. 
Wilmette  (Ouilmette),   Antoine,    24 

37,  48. 

Wilmette,  Elizabeth,  37. 
Wilmette,  Francis,  37. 
Wilmette,  Joseph,  37. 
Wilmette,  Josette,  37. 
Wilmette,  Louis,  37. 
Wilmette,  Mitchell,  37. 
Wilmette,  Sophia,  37. 
Wilson,  Jacob,  48. 
Wilson,  Seth,  48. 

Wolcott,  Alexander,  24,  40,  41,  48 
Woodrow,  Hugh,  48. 
Woodrow,  Samuel,  48. 


Y. 

Vellow  Head  (Indian  chief),  38. 


FERGUS' 

POPULAR  PUBLICATIONS, 


i. 

ANNALS  OF  CHICAGO:  a  Lect- 

ure  delivered  before  the  Chicago  Lyceum,  Jan. 
21,  1840.  By  JosKi'H  N.  RAI.KSTIKR,  Kso., 
Republi^hed  from  the  original  edition  of  1840, 
with  an  Introduction,  written  by  the  author  in 
1876;  and,  also,  a  Review  of  the  Lecture,  pub- 
lished in  the  Chicago  Tribune  in  1872.  Price, 
2;  cents. 


2. 

FERGUS'  DIRECTORYOFTHE 

CITY  OF  CHICAGO,  1839;  with  Cily  and 
County  Officers,  Churches,  Public  Buildings, 
Hotels,  etc.;  also,  list  of  Sheriffs  of  Cook 
County  and  Mayors  of  the  City  since  their  or- 
gani/.ation ;  together  with  Poll-List  of  the  First 
City  Flection,  (Tuesday,  May  2d,  1837);  and, 
also,  List  of  Purchasers  of  Lots  in  Fort  Dear- 
born Addition,  the  No.  of  the  Lots  and  the 
Prices  Paid  (1839).  Compiled  by  RUKKRT 
Fi:u<;rs.  Price,  50  cents. 


3. 

THE  LAST  OF  THE  ILLINOIS, 

AND  A  SK.FTCH  OF  TIIK  POTTAWA- 
TOM  I  KS  :  Read  before  the  Chicago  Historical 
Society,  December  1 3th,  1870;  also, 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  PRAIRIES:  Read  before 
the  Ottawa  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences.  1  )e- 
cember  3Oth,  1869.  By  Hon.  JOHN  DKAN 
CATON,  LI..D.,  late  Chief-Justice  of  Illinois. 
Price,  25  cents. 

4. 

AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF 

THK  KAKLY  MOYKMKXT  IN  ILLI- 
NOIS KOR  THK  LKGALI/ATION  OF 
SLAYKRY:  Read  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of 
the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  December  5, 
1864.  By  Hon.  WM.  11.  BROWN,  Kx- Presi- 
dent of  the  Society.  Price,  25  cents. 


5. 

BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHE 

OF  SOMK  OF  TIIK  FAK1.Y  SFTTLE1 
OF  TIIK  CITY  OF  CHICAGO.  Part 
contains  Sketches  of  Hon.  S.  Lisle  Smith,  Gt 
Davis,  Dr.  Philip  Maxwell,  John  J.  Brow 
Richard  L.  Wilson,  Col.  Lewis  C.  KerchiV 
Uriah  P.  Harris,  Henry  1!.  Clarke,  and  She) 
Samuel  J.  Lowe.  P>y  \\'M.  11.  BKSHNEI 
Price,  25  cents. 

6. 

BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHE 

Ml  SOMK  OF  TIIK  KAKLY  SKTTLKF 
OF  THF  CITY  OF  CHICAGO.  Part  1 
contains  Sketches  of  Win.  II.  Brown,  KM|., 
W.  Raymond,  Ksq.,  J.  V.  Scammon,  Ks< 
('has.  \Valker,  Ksq.,  Thomas  Church,  Ks 
Price,  25  cents. 

7. 

EARLY  CHICAGO:   A   Lecture  d 

livered  in  the  Sunday  Course,  at  McConnicl 
Hall,  May  7th,  1876.'  By  HON.  JOHN  WKX 
WORTH.  With  portrait.  Price,  35  cents. 

8. 

EARLY  CHICAGO:   A  Lecture  d 

livered  in  the  Sunday  Course,  at  McConnicl 
Hall,  April  n,  1875.  With  additional  mattt 
never  before  published.  P>y  Hon.  JOHN  WKN 
WORTH.  Price,  35  cents. 

9. 

PRESENT    AND     FUTURJ 

PROSPECTS  OF  CHICAGO:    An  Addl 
delivered  before  the  Chicago  Lyceum,  Jan.  2 
1846.     By  HENRY  BROWN,  Kso. ,  Author 
"History  of  Illinois." 

RISE  AND  PROGRESS  OF  CHICAGO 

An  Address  delivered  before  the  Centenni 
Library  Association,  March  21,  1876.  I 
JAMKS  A.  MARSHALL,  Kso. 

CHICAGO  IN  1836:  "STRANGK  KARL 
DAYS."  By  HARRIET  MARTINEAU,  auth( 
of  "Society  in  America."  Price,  25  cents. 


Sent  by  Mail  on  receipt  of  price,  by  the  Publishers, 

Fergus  Printing  Co.,  244-8  Illinois  Street,  Chicago 


: 


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